A month of weddings

This summer was the summer of weddings and I made some canvases for the brides/grooms.  I usually charge $25-$35 per piece because of the extensiveness of the project. I spent many hours on each one of these, more than usual just because they were all special people to me.  Each canvas features many layers and a little bit of drying time.  Each canvas starts with stamping the canvas.  Some stamps will be done with archival ink, some embossing ink and some paint.  After those dry or after I have finished embossing them....then I start with the ink layers.  I will ink  the whole canvas with Distress inks and then throw water on the canvas. Once that dries I will do it again only instead of throwing water on I will spritz it.  Water will pool up and I will stand the canvas up and let the inks run together. I will use some of my misting sprays and let that ink run too.  I will then add stickles or crackle paint or both.  Once that dries I embellish.

Here is where each one gets it's own personality.  I will start with the black/blue one.

I really liked this one because the bride had a FANTASTIC invitation!  I HAD to cut it up and use it in the canvas. It was a black and white invite with blue accents and totally gorgeous.  I used her envelope as just a background paper.  On top of that I used a chipboard circle and covered with crepe paper and a white string.  I stamped a lovely couple with stazon and then I painted them with watercolor and sprinkled some salt on them for texture.  I used a portion of the wedding invitation behind a Tim Holtz fragment, for the tag, for a background behind the couple and for the card I made to give the couple.  I added many layers of STUFF, which is kind of my thing. 

The Blue one:  I used the whole invitation on this one.  A large flower folded in half, some giant letters and I strung beads onto a wire.  Since the bucket of beads are all colors I had to pick out the blue and white ones.  FOREVER!!! 

The last one was for my cousin. I spent even more time on this one rolling flowers myself and stringing green beads.  Brittany is sort of an old soul, so I made hers to reflect old Hollywood.  I tried to use items that you would have found then.  Tulle, movie posters, the couple, the gears, the beads, the design of the hearts and arrows, and the tag.  While they all make me happy, this one too reflects my style so it's my favorite. Sort of like Gene Kelly would have it hanging in his house.