Mixed Media Birthday Canvas...

Good morning all...happy December!

You've seen me post in the past that masculine birthday cards are a little harder for me to create - I'm a shabby/flowery cardmaking crafter at heart. It's especially hard to be original for my husband's cards - he's seen everything I've ever made, and I always want his card to be something unlike anything I've made for someone else.

So this year, in lieu of a standard card, I made up an 8x10 mixed media canvas board as his "birthday card."  I always find a way to incorporate the number of his birthday on his cards, either on the front design, or within the inside verse, and he even okayed posting this without blurring out the numbers! LOL...

The first thing I did with the blank canvas was to add a coat of heavy gesso with a palette knife, and let it dry overnight.  I wanted a lot of background texture before I started with anything. Here's what the canvas looked like after I added the stenciling and modeling paste, color mediums, patterned papers, spray inks and paints, and stamps...

This metal bird started out gold...it's a large charm I found in the clearance section of a local big-box store. It's coated first with gesso, then an iridescent blue color spray, and a coppery-brown spray...

I added a small bunch of colorful fibers extending down from the bird's tail...they add more fun and colorful textures, and it's a great way to use up all those fibers I collected years ago when fibers were a hot, gotta-have-them item for papercrafting...

These washers, and the beautiful multi-colored mosaic tile that's a perfect match already, were in what I call my "doodads chest"...I knew there was a reason I kept all those hardware pieces around when I did all those supply-purge cleanups - and it's fun to be using them again! I coated the washers with gesso before I sprayed them to give them color...

I can't remember when I made this rose with Tim Holtz Grunge Paper...it's been so long I can't recall if I cut it on my Cricut, or handcut it.  The Prima metal clock, and the silver hinge you see peeking in at the bottom of the photo, were also gessoed and sprayed with various blue and brown sprays for aging color. More little gold seed beads are scattered around to brighten things up a bit...

Even the little diamond wire piece that was diecut from black cardstock was treated to a coating of copper brown spray so it blended with the aged metal of some of the other embellishments...

Supplies:

Canvas panel:   Windsor & Newton Artists Professional Canvas Board

Patterned papers:   Prima Vintage Vanity collection (A4 size)

Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang - Hydrangea Blue,  Tweedle Dee Denim,  Bodacious Blush,  South Shore Sand,  Cattail Copper Brown,  Gag Me With A Spoon Gray

Stencil:   The Crafters Workshop Mini Bricks           

 Dies:   La-La Land Crafts Diamond Wire;   Impression Obsession Bare Branch

Metal clock:   Prima            Chipboard numbers:   Making Memories            Metal bird:   local craft store

Stamps:   Unity Stamp Co. "chickenwire:"; Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous "Ultimate Grunge" (dots)

Memo pin:   Tim Holtz Idea-ology            Metal leaves:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Art mediums:   Golden white gesso,  Liquitex heavy white gesso,   Golden matte gel medium,   Golden molding paste,   Stabilo All pencil - black

Miscellaneous supplies and hardware:   cheesecloth,   fibers,  burlap,   seed beads,   ribbon,   washers,   hinge,   mosaic tile,   chipboard bracket,   tickets,   black feather,   flower stamens

Thank you for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!