Only A Heart With Wings Can Fly

I love the "exploding canvas" concept. It looked like so much fun when I first came across it. This is a smaller canvas (8"x10"). I began by flipping it over and painting the back with an off-white acrylic paint. I added some texture with a stencil and some texture paste and some spray inks and mica powder.Once dry, I painted the front, similarly. And don't forget the sides! I like people to be able to look at my work from any angle and find something of beauty, so I don't leave the canvas plain anywhere.

I glued some lace and textured paper to the front and gessoed and painted some more. I then cut the canvas from the front center out towards the frame like a pie and glued each section in place as I wanted. I cut a piece of chipboard to cover the back and covered it with gesso before stenciling, stamping, embossing and painting. Then I glued it to the back of the canvas and began the real fun!

I attached a twig inside the frame and set little fairy on it. I placed some tiles made from patterned card stock that I attached to chipboard, coated with UTEE, and heated. Paper flowers, silk leaves and a few trinkets were glued on and then painted with gesso before spritzing with inks. The butterfly was left natural metal and the medallion is a piece of patterned paper mounted to chipboard, stamped, and edged with border of Liquid Pearls.

Finally, some eyelets attached to the top allowed me to attach a chain for hanging and some attached to the bottom allowed me to attach a handmade tile for added interest. This is my idea of an exploded canvas...go ahead and try it yourself, you'll create something completely different with this fun technique!

Returning to My Goals

I have neglected my blog for a long time. Not because I have lost interest, but for other reasons. Now it is time to get things in order and pick up where I left off....

I love to create. I have made things as long as I can remember. My favorite days in school were always the days we had projects to make, usually when there was an approaching holiday and we got to make decorations. Except in third grade (sorry Mrs. Walker). My teacher was an older lady who thought art was handing out papers with a picture printed on it and having us color it. Ugh! All the other classes were making skeletons from milk jugs or paper bag Jack-O-Lanterns and we got coloring pages. It was the most dismal of my elementary school years! I did survive it, however my brothers suffered the brunt of my thwarted creative genius. That was the year they all got pencil holders made from frozen orange juice containers covered with Con-Tact paper for Christmas. They still tease me about it.

My point here is that while I've been on hiatus from my blog, I haven't stopped creating things; I've just not been posting them here. Today I will begin anew and I will once again share my creations! I hope to inspire and uplift others out there who may be taking a break due to health or personal issues and encourage your creativity to start flowing again, too.