Fake Or Fortune?....neither, just FUN!

      Having spent a day at my friends house playing with paint this is what I brought home. Well that's not entirely true, I brought home a painted and part decorated 12x12 canvas that needed a few finishing touches.
     I've not done anything like this before so it was quite something to just let loose and splodge with only a rough idea of the end product. All I knew was it needed to be greens and I wanted to use architectural bits and bobs. It's best to have a very basic plan because it really evolves as you play. My hardest thing was to let go of the uniform approach and the urge to keep things 'as they should be', like not putting two hinges on and having the lock in the middle!

      We began by covering the canvas in different colours of acrylic paint, it really didn't look very inspiring at that stage! Once dry I added some dabs of gold with bubble wrap, some mica misters through a stencil and some gold texture paste through another stencil, plus a little black cat in the corner.
     We had lunch then as you can't really hurry the drying of paste too much. The tissue in the corner is Tim Holtz tissue added with a matt medium underneath and over the top to seal it.
     Stamping with ink seems to get a bit lost on a bold canvas so we stamped with acrylic paint, just remember to wash your stamp off as soon as you are done. It is also best to support the canvas underneath so you get a good impression. I had been itching to use Chocolate Baroque's Gothic Fragments, I love the church window. I have also used their Texture Fragment stamps on here to do the silver bit across the middle. Neither set has been mounted on foam so that I can bend them, to use only part of the image or to stamp on uneven surfaces or round corners.

     I also used a script stamp and the phrase 'Art washes away.....' which is also a Choc B stamp.
     The hinge and keyhole are cut in Grunge Board with a Sizzix Bigz die Hardware Findings, then given the 'rust' treatment from Tim Holtz book, both are attached with tiny brads through the canvas. The key is from an old necklace found in a charity shop to which I've added a tassel and a tiny tag, all held in place with a screwtop brad coloured with alcohol ink to match the chain.
     The oval in the textured area is stamped with a 'Y'  on cream card, then distressed with Old Paper and stuck on with matt medium. Once dry it was distressed again with Vintage Photo to tone it down a bit.
     The whole thing changes with the light because I've used some acrylics with a sheen to them, mica sprays and gold texture paste, as well as metallic paints and metal findings.  
     This has been so much fun to make and I like it so much it's actually up on my living room wall! Hey, does this mean I'm finally an Artist? Fake or Fortune? definitely not fake and sadly not fortune either, just FUN!  Thanks Jane.
     If you would like to try one of these and you live in Norfolk, England then give Aldridge Crafts a call and book a workshop. I can guarantee you'll have lots of painty fun.

I would like to enter this canvas in the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Alter Something (a canvas)

The Artistic Stamper - Use Distress (paints, powders and techniques)

Country View Crafts - Painty Pleasures (it was)

Make My Monday - Anything But A Card

Craft My Life - Anything But A Card

Eclectic Ellapu - Texture (pastes and rust)

Stampin'For The Weekend - Anything But A Card

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Creative Moments - Anything Goes and Add Sparkle