Robin Mixed Media Canvas

Hello crafters! I hope you had a fun Halloween and a good weekend! My youngest was Bumblebee for Halloween and had a great time trick or treating.

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This week we have a Thinking of You theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer/company and this week it is Tim Holtz. You can find Tim's fantastic ranger of products here. You don't have use his products to join, but it is fun if you do. 

We also have a new guest designer and during November Teresa York is joining us. Check out her Instagram account to see the stunning tag that she created for this week's challenge.

I made a Thinking of You mixed media canvas with a winter/Christmas theme. The canvas is 6x6 in. The bird is a loosely colored robin. I used paint, stencils, paste, glitter and stamping on the background. Lots of wintery foliage was die cut from scrap papers.

Start by die cutting the bird from watercolor paper with Tim Holtz Sizzix Feathered Friends.

Watercolor the three pieces in a loose manner. Leave some of the white of the paper showing for highlights. I ended up using two wings instead of one.

Glue the bird together and add feathers, details and highlights with a black pen and a white gel pen. 

Coat a canvas or canvas board with gesso and let dry. Paint with watered-down Distress Paint and mist with more water to blend. Leave to dry.

Stamp the branch from Tim's Winter Watercolor 2 twice. Stamp the birds from Tim's Mini Ornates and the sentiment on tissue paper and adhere to the canvas with gloss medium. Add a layer of medium under and on top of the tissue paper. The tissue paper will disappear. I did this since I noticed that it was hard to get a crisp stamped impression on this particular canvas. 

The foliage was die cut with Tim Holtz Sizzix Vault Festive Foliage. I used left-over inky and watercolored papers. 

Glue together and give them some shape. Later, I die cut new red berries, using a piece of watercolor paper where I tested the orange/red shade for the bird. 

Stamp the background with Simon Says Stamp Old Letter.

Sponge Distress Paint through Tim Holtz Latticework. This is such a pretty stencil.

Apply Texture Paste through the Bubble stencil and not Grit-Paste which I accidentally photographed here. Sprinkle Distress Rock Candy Glitter over the paste. Let dry.

It was hard to capture the glitter as day-light was almost over when I photographed this project. The Texture Paste is not completely opaque. If you want it to be, you can mix in a little white paint. For this project, I wanted a hint of the background to show through.

Magical comes from Simon Says Stamp Forest Scenery and was stamped on inky paper. 

I used a pen for the eye and the white gel pen to add the white dot in the eye. The cut out was too small for the actual eye, but too large for the white dot. Fold the wings and tail feathers out slightly. 

The foliage was layered under the bird, almost as a nest. Here you can see the new berries, die cut from paper painted with the same paint as the bird. The sentiment comes from Forest Scenery.

I also added some foliage around the sentiment. The branches with the red berries were placed so that they would help the eye move around the canvas. The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp Retro Wishes.

I added a bunch of Simon Says Stamp Clear and Surf Pawsitively Dazzling Gems. I have written it before, but I really like these gems. Sequins, gems, pearls, brads and small buttons have for a long time been favorites of mine when it comes to finishing touches.

Join us this week in our Thinking of You challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.