I used Cricut Craft Room to weld the words "knows" and "love" and to create the general shape and feel of the canvas layout. I started with a blank canvas not knowing why some canvases cost more than others (so I bought the cheap stuff... worked fine), I learned though that the lesser quality canvases "drink in" the paint more and it took several coats to get even adequate coverage. The first layer was done with a tan color, then I took a lighter cream color and kind of swirled it around the corners to give some variation and deph to the color. Once it was dry, I took my cuts crom my cricut that I made on vinyl and layed it out on my canvas. I made sure it was stuck down very well and then painted over the vinyl with the tan again to create a "seal" of paint around the letters. Then I had at it with the blue. Painted the whole thing then let it dry. Then I peeled off the vinyl, exposing the tan letters. I still felt that the overall look was a little bland and needed more depth, so I took some Walnut Ink, sprayed it onto a paper towel (not recommended, I'm certain I wasted a lot of ink... felt next time maybe?) and brushed the brown ink across the whole canvas, giving it a varied-aged-coffee-stained effect. ThenI gave it a generous coating of Glossy Mod Podge. While that was drying I decided to make some flowers to give the work some dimension. I LOVE the Flower Shoppe cartridge - there are so many options with it! This is the "fun" flower cut at 4" and at 1 and 3/4" Each flower piece was wet, crumpled, inked, heat dried then pieced together. Lastly, the flowers were hot glued to the canvas.
Beautiful work of love for your mother. I'm sure she'll treasure it forever. Nice job. TFS all your great tips!
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