Fearless Spring!

Servus and welcome back to my little creative spot close to the beautiful river Danube!

To me spring is the "fearless" season as it overcomes winter's "death" and decay over and over again each year. I love it when the first greens and little dashes of colour bravely start to reconquer what has been covered in pale whites, dusky greys and rotting browns for months and I tried to capture the nature of this special time of the year in this little altered canvas:

Emerald Creek products used:
EC St. Paddy's Day embossing powder
EC Easter Parade embossing powder
EC Oil Rubbed Bronze embossing powder
EC Fearless Buckle Charm
EC Skull Charm
Distress paints
Distress markers
Distress stains

As the list above already indicates: this is my DT project for the actual challenge 

Ring in Spring!

over at Emerald Creek Dares. 

The ladies on this fabulous DT have all outdone themselves once more to show you some fresh greens and first spring colours - so make sure you check out their makes!

I really enjoy being on this DT as it gives me the possibility to use my beloved Tim Holtz Sizzix dies and Ranger Distress products! And this challenge theme was perfect for also using a sheet of Tim Holtz' gorgeous "Wallflower" paper stash (I have been hoarding for ages now).

What I did was flip over a small canvas and use it as a shadow box.

To make the sheet fit in with the canvas opening I took the time to exactly measure and draw a template - but the result was, oh, so worth it, wasn't it?

I have taken steps images of this process and of my sketch for the template and will try to write up a detailed tutorial on this during the next few weeks (promise!).

But for now I will just share some of the steps on how I made this specific altered springtime canvas.

Once I had glued my cut to size designer paper in place I started with blending the edges with brown archival ink using a piece of cut 'n dry foam.

You can see the difference that makes. Using archival ink prevents the dried ink from smudging, tinting or bleeding through when it gets in contact with moisture (e.g. from wet paint or other fluid media) afterwards.

Next I prepared the cool Emerald Creek buckle and skull charms I wanted to use on my canvas by cutting off the loop and covering both charms with a thin coat of matte medium (to add some tooth for acrylic paints to hold on to).

The skull was then covered with some dabbed on picket fence and frayed burlap Distress paint and set aside to dry.

The "Fearless" buckle charm was coated with Distress paints squeezed lemonade, black soot and mowed lawn...dabbing on and off the paints until I was content with the look.

The next step was to add some dashes of dark green Emerald Creek embossing powder to the frame...

...and the gorgeous Easter Parade and St. Paddy's Day embossing powders to the die cut crown and flourish:

As you can see I also scraped on some Distress paints (using a palette knife) to repeat the colours of the egg, crown and bird to help fuse all the elements into a coherent piece of art. I did that before I glued all my pieces in place.

The bird on its branch (like the mini crown and flourish also a Tim Holtz design) was die cut from the left overs of the same sheet I used to cover the back of the canvas with and then coloured with Distress markers and stains. The latter were applied using a fine tip soft brush. Colours used were: old paper, fired brick, broken china, frayed burlap and ground espresso.

The little egg and nest were then glued in place using matte medium.

The two word tiles were stamped onto scraps from the used designer paper sheet, inked around the edges and glued in place using sticky foam pads. I also dabbed on some of the paints I had used on the canvas to make them blend in.

Et voilá!

I have to admit I really like how this piece turned out as I tried to capture the feel of that special (and short) time when spring and winter meet and moist dark soil and rotten, bleached grass and leaves slowly get displaced by fresh greens, yellows and blues of crocus, spring snowflake and liverleaf. It is the time when I feel that spring is at the same time very powerful and yet still tender.

But back to challenge business...lol...if you hop over to Emerald Creek Dares you will find out how my teamies interpreted the challenge theme and get some more inspirational hints on how to create your own pieces for this dare! I hope to see you play along with us soon!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia 

xxx