Lynne for all Seasons!

Hello Followers and Friends and Welcome to Magpieheaven. I've been feeling a bit under the weather this week with a virus I just can't shift. Nevertheless, I've been crafting away and it's taken my mind off feeling poorly! Focusing on 'Nature's Glories' on this canvas, which I've created to brighten up my Mum's flat, has lifted my spirits so I should like to enter it for the Country View Crafts, 'Nature's Glories' Challenge here.

 My plan is to see if I can eventually create my Mum four canvasses corresponding to the Four Seasons. This canvas is not exactly Keren Baker's CAS style, which is amazing and has to be checked out; but the lady at the window was inspired by Keren's wonderful 'cut out' technique featured over on the PaperArtsy blog here. This is where I began.

I took a very inexpensive, discount art shop canvas and added as many different textures as I could before covering it in a good coating of Gesso. Here you can see I used die-cuts; Grunge Paste through stencils; masking tape; a Prima topiary tree and some punched out leaves to create my background.

In this close-up you can see the effect of Gesso over masking tape - a tip from Gabi at Dusty Attic. Her incredible video is well worth viewing!  At the very top of the image, you can also see the effect of squeezing Grunge Paste through gauze.

I built up my canvas, adding a range of embellishments: Tattered Pine Cone Roses; Tattered Florals; Prima flowers and resin birds and a beautiful cherub given me by my good friend, Lucy. Everything was given a coat of Gesso!

I made sure the sides of the canvas had texture added too.

While everything was drying I painted my window die-cut with some PaperArtsy Little Black Dress. I didn't stick it down, but every so often I would place it onto the canvas to remind me of what I wanted the composition to look like eventually.

This is a huge jump, I know, but I think that photographing every step would have taken ages, so I apologize for a leap - or should I say 'a spring' - forward in time? I wanted to evoke the light of one of those evenings in late spring when it doesn't get dark until well after eight and summer is almost here. I mixed little mister bottles of PaperArtsy washes in Guacamole, Brown Shed, Hey Pesto and Inky Pool and thoroughly enjoyed myself spraying to my heart's content. I think that the spray painting technique gave a soft, twilight feel to the canvas. I then accented areas in paints and Treasure Golds in Sapphire, Green Amber and a limited edition purple.

I am indebted to the brilliant Keren Baker for my Edwardian lady gazing out at Nature's Glories in her garden of endless Springtime. I stamped her onto card first washed with PaperArtsy Vanilla. I used Versamark, Onyx Black and once this was heat set, I dabbed on Blush and Brown Shed with a baby-wipe to create her skin tones. Then it was time to take the scalpel and cut away her gilded cage! The top of the cage becomes a pretty lamp, only just lit for the evening and she gazes out of the window into a world of endless possibilities! The wall-paper is PaperArtsy Chatsworth and she has a curtain of a little tea-stained lace. The embellishments on the window include a painted resin flower arrangement; tiny punched out butterflies, a jump ring and some tiny rusted keys - I love this charm given me by Lucy: maybe they are the keys to the lady's studio where she has been creating with the sun streaming in.

The butterflies are painted and stencilled card or punched out of Chatsworth paper and the Tim Holtz trellis was embossed with Verdi Gris and Copper Frantage.

I continued my trellis over the edge of my canvas. I should like to have included a sentiment from one of Lin Brown's Eclectica ones, but those roses just went wild and left no room for anything else! Sorry, Keren, if this isn't quite in the spirit of CAS; but I did enjoy cutting that lady out of her cage and you were the inspiration! I should like to link my canvas to PaperArtsy and Country View Crafts Challenge for May. Thank you so much for stopping by to peep into the Magpie's Nest today. My next canvas is going to be Summer. I do hope you have a wonderful, creative week and that all your crafty projects flourish.