It was my daughters birthday recently and I was going to do her a painted owl card. Then I remembered that I had all these cute little chunky canvas's (6x6 inches or 15 x 15 cm and 1 1/2 inch or 3 1/2 cm sides) and thought I would make her card, a little canvas instead.
So first I painted over the canvas with Gesso, then I used my Kaisercraft doily stencil and used more Gesso through the stencil. It gave my background some great detailed texture on the top right corner.
I cut some book paper in a hill shape so my owl had somewhere to stand. I used the Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste and glued that to the bottom left corner. I then painted my background with DecoArt Americana paints in Lemon Yellow, Sea Breeze and Orange Flame. I added some more stenciling with a TCW Mini Mums stencil. That orange flower on there is great it really pops. It was time for some more little dots of white with some Gesso and a Finnabair stencil. Then the last bit for my background was a few Kaisercraft stitching rubons in black and white. I made sure to go over my rubons with the Helmar Decoupage Craft Paste to seal them in and make sure they will not come off.
Next step was my main image. I drew my owl on book paper, then I painted him with Gesso and gave him green highlights with DecoArt Advocado dip. Its a lovely shade of green. I toned it down with more Gesso so it was just the edges that were highlighted. I then drew all the details in with a Stabilo pencil and went over them with a waterbrush. Added some little doodles with pens in black and white.
I positioned him on the canvas so I could see where to draw his feet and legs.
Then with all of my collage images I always do these 3 steps. I use Helmar Decoupage Craft Paste and the great little red glue/paint spreader. I put glue where I am going to put my image on my canvas and then on the back of my image. Then I place the image on the canvas and smooth with the Glue/paint spreader. This gives you a well adhered image with no bubbles.
To finish my canvas I used 2 coats of the Helmar Crystal Kote Matte varnish . This gives your canvas a fabulous seal and protects it from dirt, dust and fading. I wrote on the back of the canvas like it was a card. My daughter loved her little chunky owl canvas, birthday card.