Grandmother Canvas: Hey Girl

Hi everyone! Monday and time for another Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge. The theme for this week is ‘Hey Girl’, such a fun theme with lots of possibilities. I hope you will play along with us and don’t forget to check the site to see the gorgeous projects of the design team members.

I wanted to do a really meaningful project and decided to do a canvas about my grandmother. This turned out to be one of my all-time favorite projects, especially since it represents my memories of my grandmother very well. Among other things, she wore stylish clothing, created artsy ceramic pieces and loved dogs and birds. According to my mom, her favourite colours were turquoise and blue. I also decided to add a bit of gold. All the stamps, papers and details I used relates to memories of my grandmother.

Here's how I did the background:

The canvas was painted with Speckled Egg and then I added some Pool for variety.

I did a bit of stamping with Stazon ink and gold embossed a Lattice and a swirl stamp here and there.

After that the canvas was splattered with watered-down black paint and misted with Perfect Pearls and water. Finally, the edges were swept with gold paint.

The frame was die-cut from patterned paper.

I used fragments as the main embellishments. They were coloured a bit with alcohol inks (Stream and gold) and  glued to patterned papers and stamped images which fitted with the theme. I also placed one on top of a photo of my mom and grandmother.

The mini dress form was die-cut from grungeboard, and the dress part was coated with layers of clear UTEE (at least four), and finishing off with one layer of Stream embossing powder, and then a little bit of gold. It was meant to look a bit like faux-ceramics since my grandmother did ceramic pieces and I remember some of them to look a bit like this. I glued a paper with a dress pattern to grungeboard and cut the dress form one more time, layering the pieces together. A pearl necklace, wire belt and a little wooden bird finished the dress form.

The trimmings flower ribbon was dyed with Antique Linen Distress Stain.

The title letters were die-cut from natural sticky-back canvas using the Vintage Market die, and inked with Antique Linen. I have lots of memories from my grandmother sitting in her chair in the living room, so the chair stamp was perfect. All the stamping was done on patterned paper with Archival Ink Coffee.

When I thought the canvas was finished I stumbled upon a Swarovski crystal heart in a box, which I meant to use on a piece of jewelry. Instead, it found its perfect home on this canvas. It was just the right colour and a heart on top of that, so I simply had to use it.

The canvas is pretty deep, so I stamped all the edges too, with stamps that fit with the theme.

The other side.

From the top.

And the base.

I hope you will play along with us this week! You can win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamps, and three projects are picked by the design team to be featured every week. 

Thank you so much for looking at this long post!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamper’s Anonymous: Mini Muse, At the Movies, Curiosities, Attic Treasures, Tiny Textures; Hero Arts: Painted People CG402, Variety and Quality CG190, Lattice Background, Untitled Love AC004; Artistic Outpost: Quotes & Quotables, Typography; Prima: Songbirds
Dies: Sizzix: Vintage Market Sizzlits, Mini Sewing Room Movers & Shapers, Fancy Square Frames Framelits, Hearts set Movers & Shapers, On the edge Mini Scallops.
Paint and ink: Adirondack paint dabber Pool, Pitch Black, Gold; Jenni Bowlin paint dabber Speckled Egg; Alcohol Ink: gold mixative, Stream; Distress Ink: Antique Linen; Distress Stain: Antique Linen; Archival Ink Coffee; Stazon Jet Black; Versamark
Embossing powder: Ranger clear UTEE, Adirondack Stream; gold
Paper: Tim Holtz idea-ology: Lost and Found, Crowded Attic
Embellishments: Tim Holtz idea-ology: square fragments, Hanger Clips, Film Strip ribbon, Trimmings, Pen Nibs, Adornments; Studio Calico wood veneer birds; lace trim; pearls; Swarovski crystal
Other: idea-ology grungeboard; Ranger natural sticky-back canvas; Perfect Pearls; Glossy Accents; wire