Oh Christmas Tree…

Hello Design Dazzle readers, I’m Monica of The White Bench blog. Nice to see you again!

For 100 Ideas of Christmas Wonderful, this year I thought of showing you how to make a mixed media canvas to display in your home or give as gift. The finished result is this… mind you, the gorgeousness of the mixed media layers can be better appreciated in person!

Tools and materials:

– a canvas (stretched or flat)

– hot glue gun and sticks

– scraps of paper (scrapbook or vintage or book pages etc)

– palette knife or plastic card

– gesso

– hairdryer

– a piece of bubble wrap

– PVA glue

– an old brush

– spray glue

– clear glitter

– air dry clay

– rolling pin

– cookie cutters (round and star or just star)

– book page

– scissors

– driftwood/branches/sticks assorted in size

1. First of all you have to collage scraps of (vintage) papers on a blank canvas.

Use whatever strikes your fancy, also scrapbook paper works great.

Do not worry if the paper shrinks a bit, it usually becomes flat again when completely dry.

3. Apply glue also on the surface of the collage- it helps protecting the paper from being damaged by the layers of paint and gesso we’re going to apply later on.

Let air dry overnight or dry well with a hairdryer.

4. With a palette knife (or simply a plastic card or even your fingers!) apply gesso to some areas.

5. While still wet, imprint bubbles in it, using a piece of bubble wrap.

 6. At this point, let dry or speed up the process with the hairdryer.