Peeps Canvas

For those of you who don’t know, I am obsessed with chickens. I fell in love with them during a trip to Key West years ago and have been in love with them ever since! For the past three years, I have been blessed with raising chickens and Peeps, one of my original hens, is my favorite. Peeps is a commercial breed — valued because they lay an egg almost every day for about two years. But she is my favorite because of her calm, loving personality.

When she was just a chick, she hopped up on my hand and we became fast friends. She doesn’t mind being held and hugged for a minute or two, is always curious and willing to try new things and is never afraid to take on a dog (through the safety of her fence).

I thought she deserved a place in the house, so I created this canvas of her.

I started by painting the canvas in Distress Paint — I mixed silver and a couple of blues.

Then I used Texture Paste and a stencil to add a chevron pattern. I cut out a silhouette of Peeps and adhered it with dimensional foam adhesive. The title is cut out of cardstock. The other words are rub ons from Tim Holtz. I love them … they are not typical rub ons and they go on easily on canvas, fabric, metal or whatever.

 

I used some leftover buttons and flowers and some feathers from the chicken coop … I think the little one in the front is actually from Peeps.

I added a little burlap behind the photo and used embossing paste and a stencil to add more dimension to the top. The tag is an actual tag that came on something my husband bought at the farm store. I thought it was cool, so I kept it and used it here.

I love how it turned out … it makes me smile every time I look at it. Peeps could use some love and well wishes right now … she is currently trying to fight off an infection that makes it hard for her to breathe. I’m hoping she’ll get better because I absolutely love my Peeps!!

Peeps in Pink

Our challenge on the Mosaic Moments Design Team this time was to create a page with texture. I opted for a mixed-medial approach and provided you with step-by-step directions to create the background on Journella.

Click here to see it and cheer me on!

Created by Sydney

This is Sydney. She is my cousin’s daughter parrot. Becky, my cousin, has five parrots and each one is awesome, but Sydney is special. She is an amazing bird. She talks, she sings opera, she laughs at jokes. Sydney even senses emotions and responds accordingly.

I recently spent a few days with my cousin and while she at work, it was just me and the birds. While I was upstairs in Becky’s studio, Sydney, who was downstairs, called me repeatedly. We spent hours yelling through the house and mimicking each other. “Hi” “Hi” “Helllloooo” “Hellloooo” etc.

But, one day I was particularly sad (I suffer from chronic depression). That day, Sydney started calling me “Baby,” singing to me, and telling jokes — I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but I figured it out when she started laughing. After a few hours, I really did feel better. I figured the change in Sydney was because she was getting to know me better, but the next day we were right back to “Hi”.

Anyhow, Sydney likes to go up to the studio when Becky is creating. She has a special cage on Becky’s desk where she works on her own cards and creations with leftover cardstock and adding-machine tape. I “stole” some of Sydney’s adding-machine tape when I came home so I could turn her work of art into one that would forever hang on my wall.

I started with a blank canvas that I painted with Distress Paint. (Distress Paint is like acrylic paint, but while wet, it reacts with water. And I love the feel the paint has after it dries.)

 

Then I used stencils, Distress Paint, Ranger Archival Ink and Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Embossing Paste to create a background.

Then, I went over the top with a light layer of paint and some Distress Ink to help calm down the boldness a bit.

Next came Sydney’s work … I sprayed the adding-machine tape with Glimmer Mists and crinkled it up. All of the tears and cuts along the edge are Sydney’s work. After it was dry, I sprayed it lightly with Ink Refresher to keep it soft and malleable while I was gluing it to the canvas.

Next, I stamped some quotes and sayings from Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 onto white cardstock. I cut them apart and used Distress Ink to color them.

 

 

 

I added a photo of Sydney and some feathers from some of Becky’s birds.Then I added a variety of doo dads and flowers to finish off the piece.

I also made one for Becky to hang in her studio …

 

A box for chickens

My idea for this project came from Arlene Cuevas, one of the amazing members of the Graphic 45 team. As soon as I saw her creation, I fell in love and wanted to do something similar. Check out this blog for a link to the two step-by-step videos that show you how to make it.

I was merely waiting for something to decorate to copy her technique. And, when my mom gave me an embroidered doily with chickens on it, I knew it was the perfect thing to frame.

Naturally, I put my own spin on it and went through a little trial and error, but eventually my project came out looking like this:

I started with a plain black shadow box I got on sale at Michaels.

I coated the entire box with white gesso.

Then, I used Wendy Vecchi’s white embossing paste and a stencil from Christy Tomlinson Designs to cover the entire frame and provide some texture.

This is where my project took a turn …

I wanted to see what would happen if I used Piccolo 3D Enamel Gels to help provide some background color. I started with Dark Green.

And then added Clementine.

Then I glued on a bunch of random flowers, metal pieces, ribbon, keys, buttons and more to the front of the box and coated everything with gesso. This covered up all of the odd colors … my flowers were navy, hot pink, gray and peach! I kept the gesso light on the sides so the colors would show through.

Next I added a bit of Bright Yellow …

And some more green and orange … I taped off the glass front (it couldn’t be removed from the frame) and sprayed it with blue Glimmer Mist. It came out darker than I wanted, but it looked OK. (I don’t have any photos of that stage because it was a bit of a disaster).

Needless to say, Glimmer Mist does not dry on top of 3D Enamel Gel. Ever.

I tried heating.

I tried sitting it in the sun.

After a week, I was still getting blue on my hands every time I picked up the piece. I really didn’t want to start over since I had quite a bit of time and money invested in this, but I knew I couldn’t hang it on the wall as it was.

Deciding I couldn’t hurt it anymore than I already had, I ran it under the faucet. The water washed most of the Glimmer Mist off — at least the parts that refused to dry.

And I ended up with this:

The perfect box to showcase the doily my mom gave me!

Here are a few close-ups …

The flowers took on the look of molded plastic. Very cool when you think of it …,

 

The front is pretty, but the sides are amazing … I love the patina I got.

Thanks Arlene for the inspiration! I still plan to follow your instructions to do another one that more closely resembles yours!