Christmas Tag techniques rub off onto my canvas.

I think Tim would be proud of me. I utilized several ideas from his 12 Days of Christmas tags to make this gift for my best friend. Yes, there is a reason to go through the whole process of making all 12 tags, because you come out the other side with a lot of fresh new ideas that are bound to find their way into your projects.

This was my first attempt at working with a canvas block and I must say canvas is fairly forgiving and nice to work with. I really loved the canvas brads, that Tim created, that I wondered what working with a photograph would be like. This is a 5x7 canvas block, that you can find at most craft stores. I printed the photograph on Sticky Back Canvas by Ranger Ink (this is my new favorite craft item...I love it!!). Since I was not adding paper layers with the photo, I cut enough of the canvas to cover the whole canvas block instead of cutting out just the picture.

I will attempt to describe the various things I did, in case you want to try one. Unfortunately, I didn't take step by step pictures.

Since the canvas is close to white, I covered the whole canvas around the photo with Antique Linen Distress Ink (sponged it on) to give it a cream base. I wanted to carry the feel of the photo to the ends of the canvas, so I started with my "sky colors" of distress ink at the top (Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Broken China) coloring various parts of the upper area. I tried to leave the lightest distress ink (Weathered Wood) around the photo graph for a soft highlight area and went darker blues toward the edges.

Next, I grabbed my earth tones (Tea Dye and Vintage Photo) and started adding layers to the bottom using the same concept as the blues, darker toward the edges. These colors started off a nice base to my canvas. But I wanted a bit more intense color, especially around the edges, so I grabbed my color spritzers that I used on the roses in Tag #12.

To make my color spritzers, I added the following to a Mini Mister bottle: whatever base color Glimmer Mist I had on hand (used Denim Blue for blue and Coffee Shop for brown) and then added a tiny scoop, the size of a pea, of Perfect Pearls to the Mister (used the Blue Pantina for the blue and Gold for the brown) Perfect Pearls has a bit more shimmery intensity than just Glimmer Mist by itself. Note: my blue spritzer was just not bright enough for me so I added 4-5 drops of Alcohol Ink (Color was Stream) and the blue came out a bit better. Always test your spritzers on scrap paper, until you get the intensity of color you want.

For the right side of my canvas, I grabbed a Mini Mask from the Idea-Ology collection and stuck it in the upper right corner (note, masks do not stick to canvas but if you spray straight down instead of at an angle, they should work fine). I put a square piece of paper over the photo part of the canvas to block the spray from hitting it and then spritzed the whole mask area.

I used different cut or ragged edges of paper to work as a mask for my spritzers. The blue above the photo is just a jagged edge piece of paper to create an uneven sky color. For the brown spritzer, I just covered the photo section of the canvas and sprayed at the bottom corner with no other mask. I love how it sprayed little brown droplets in the lighter brown part.

Finally, I added my accents. I cut the flourish from the Home Accents Cricut cartridge and sprayed it with my brown and blue misters. It has that nice metallic finish. I added flowers by Prima and the Phrase bars are by All My Memories.

I did my best to explain the process I used to create this and hope you try a canvas project soon too. If you have any questions about what I did or used, just ask me in the comment section and I'll leave an answer for you.