Art Recipe Wednesday: Cute Cousins

Hello, Dear Friends!

Do you know this nursery rhyme about little girls being made of sugar and spice? Well, what are little boys made of? I'm about to show you. ;)

For today's Art Recipe I decided to create a canvas with a nostalgic retro feel to it.

These super adorable boys are my mom's cousins and when I saw this photo in one of her albums, I immediately knew I would take these three cute guys on an artistic journey. :)

Although I used quite a lot of pastes and other media and went wild with the crackles, I still wanted my canvas to look light and subtle. Here are some details:

Some of the products I used, like the stencils, Mica Powder and Micro Beads, are being released at CHA right now and they are not available in the shops yet. But they will be out really soon I I just can't wait to see how you're going to use them!

I hope you like my three little gentlemen so why not find a photo that inspires you and try showcasing it on a canvas?!

So here we go - full Art Recipe and step-by-step info for you!

1. I've started with covering the whole 8x8'' (20x20 cm) stretched canvas with a thick coat of Prima Art Extravagance White Crackle Paste and I let it dry naturally placing the canvas very close to the heater to speed up the process. (It is cold and wet now, here in Ireland...) You can try drying a bit with a hairdryer or a heating tool but this way the crackles of the Pastes will be much smaller - I wouldn't recommend it.

Next, I used one of my new stencils and added some extra Art Basics Modeling Paste texture on the top of it - trying to focus mostly in the middle of the composition.

2. When the background was dry, I started building layers under the vintage photo (I scanned and printed the original photo and glued it onto a piece of chipboard). I used a combination of small scraps of lace, paper leaves, wooden and metal elements to start.

All of them were glued down with a bit of Art Basics Modeling Paste. When I was happy with the layers, I used some 3D Foam Tape (Scrapbook Adhesives) and attached the photo to the composition. 

3. I added more of the embellishments: paper flowers, buttons, metal elements, found objects. All of them were glued with Modeling Paste. I filled one of the Mechanicals Bottle Caps with a bit of the Paste too and glued in a bit of silver Micro Beads (Art Ingredients). I dried the composition with a heating tool avoiding getting close to the synthetic lace as much as possible - I didn't want to melt it too much! :)

4. To prepare my metal and plastic embellishments for spraying, I covered them with one coat of Art Basics White Heavy Gesso. It's not necessary to do it very precisely - just a little was enough to get rid of the dark colours and prime the embellishments.

When the gesso was dry, I sprayed the project with a bit of homemade tea stain - for a nice vintage brown colour - and then Art Ingredients Mica Powder mixed with water in sprayer bottles: I used Blue, Teal, Gold and Rust.

5. I dried the project with a heating tool again - Mica Powder showed the details of the crackles beautifully and stayed nicely on the embellishments. (If you think Mica Powder is too loose after drying, you can protect your project with a fixative for dry pastels or any spray varnish).

Like I said above, some of the products I used are not available in the shops yet, but you can find some really great Art Ingredients from my previous line in our Mixed Media Place Store. You can also see the sneak peeks of some of my new Ingredients on Prima blog.

And here are some of the other products I used to create my canvas:


I hope you'll feel inspired!

And one more thing - we're looking for talented people from all around the world who are passionate about mixed media and ready to support our Mixed Media Place Store on our blog.

Maybe it's you? :)

I'm sending you the warmest possible hugs - keep creating, guys!