Artsy Addicts: From Scrappy Mess to a Masterpiece

Some serious Holiday crafting has been going on in my room the last few weeks. Between Tim's 12 tags of Christmas, Cards, and some last minute gifts, I have had scraps up to my elbows. I wanted to share with you guys today a tip for turning those scraps into a work of Art.

I started with an 8x10 naked canvas (you could do any size). Then I used my Ranger Glue 'n Seal to decoupage the scarps onto the untreated canvas. Just looks like a giant mess right now. But notice the chipboard pieces - they will offer some depth later.

Next I covered the entire canvas with watered down Gesso. This will make all the elements one color and make them look as if they belong together. Be careful not to apply the Gesso too thick - you still want to be able to see the patters from the different styles of paper. I also added a thin coat of White Metallic Acrylic paint and then lightly sprayed Lindy's Stamp Gang's Creme Brulee Cream to the finished piece to give it a sparkle. So you may ask - "Why add all of those pieces if you are just going to cover them up?" - well, it's simple, I'm after texture. While it is hard to see in the photograph - the text and the music notes are still visible in places. But the Mess looks like a uniformed mess at this point.

Next I wanted some contrast for all this white. So I took an old cardstock frame from Daisy Dee that was dated 2004, and I covered it in black gesso and bead gel. When it was dried, I used my finger to rub same white metallic paint over the frame to bring out the texture of the bead gel. Then I spritz it with the Lindy's Stamp Gang Creme Brulee Cream.

Next I assembled a beautiful spray of Prima's Christmas lights Crystal Sprays, White Flowers, and butterflies from Karlas001 store around my frame. Notice that even though the flowers and frame have covered the canvas - you can still see the textures of the pieces that were adhered to the canvas backdrop. These textures give depth to the canvas and offer something new every time you admire the piece.

Next I decided the frame seemed empty so I cut a Tim Holtz bird cage from black chipboard and embossed it in silver with the music note stamp from Stampendous. During the 12 tags of Christmas, Tim Holtz shared a technique for using shrink plastic with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). So I cut the bird at 8 inches from the Home Accents Cricut Cartridge from Shrink plastic and when I dipped it into the UTEE it shrunk to about 4 inches making the perfect crystal center piece for my canvas.

To finish the piece off, I used a Dylusions stamp from Dyan Reaveley, that says "A Friend knows the song in your heart" - the rest of the phrase was removed. I stamped it onto thick packaging and embossed it with white embossing powder. Placed it in the bottom right hand corner of the frame and called this Masterpiece finished.