Mixed Media Canvas Collage: "Junk Princess"

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I made this mixed media canvas collage for my Craft room to brighten it up and also to show that everything can be beautiful. Some of the items I used from around my home were an outlet plate, hair cutting comb, old hinges, scrap wire, puzzle pieces, scrabble letters, buttons, wooden cabinet knob, a spring, and computer components. I also pulled paper flowers I made, fake flowers, butterflies, lace, and gauze from my craft stash. I used the white gauze around the area with the words by painting it with Mod Podge and then bunching the gauze to make thick texture in an oval shape. 

This type of collage is a very fun project to do. You can plan ahead of time or just go with the flow as I do. I started out just gluing scrapbook paper on a blank canvas, placed gesso on everything, but the areas I wanted to show and then began placing my metal items, flowers, etc. Every time I wanted to add something on the top of something else I would paint some gesso on the bottom piece, let it dry and then use E6000 glue to hold them together. In the very end I painted just about everything with a thin layer of gesso and then I used Martha Stewart's Pearl Paints and some regular acrylic craft paints that I made into sprays to give the entire art piece color. When I used the Gesso over everything I didn't worry about any color showing through from the items I used, unless they were dark an ugly. For example, the original colors of the flowers looked nice muted with Gesso so I didn't have to use more than one layer of Gesso on them, but the rusty electrical plate, bolts and washers had to be covered completely.

Give this project a try.

Happy Crafting! 

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted
All Rights Reserved

"At Sea" Mixed Media Collage

Hello and welcome to Heartedly Handcrafted! "At Sea" is my first mixed media canvas collage and my first major piece of arts or crafts anything. I had been watching YouTube videos for craft ideas and fell in love with this art form. Then I decided to start this blog to share it with you. I think YouTube had created an arts and crafts monster. I'm obsessed and want to try it all.

Everyone has a junk drawer, garbage, broken decorations, etc. Some people have an earring without a match, an old watch, seashells from that beach vacation, old fake flowers, kids small toys (like Lego), a drawer knob and so forth. These can all be used to create your mixed media canvas collage. 

You don't even need an actual canvas. A scarp piece of wood, metal, old picture frame, a box, book, anything that you can stick stuff too will work. What you will need to by is some strong glue such as E6000, Mod Podge which you can get at Walmart now, Gesso and some craft paints. 

I purchased inexpensive crafts paints at my local craft store. I also made some sprays. How to create your own sprays can be found under the blog tab Craft Supplies, Ideas and Tips or you can just google it and decide which idea you like best.

The people who became my inspiration, their blogs/websites and one of their demonstration videos for two of them:

Anna Dabrowski - Finnabair  
Leanne of Luvlee Scrappin (video). 
Gabrielle Pollacco (video)

Happy Crafting!