The Key to the Journey of His Dream

*EDIT* Here is a question that was asked in the comments.

Amy Johnson said...

All I can say is WOW! This is amazing! My son is a drummer, and he would LOVE something like this. I've read and reread your instructions several times, and I still don't understand how you made it. I'm not familiar with Gesso or any of the other products. Is that a pic of him? And why was there a pic of a sand castle...is that the original piece that you altered. I'm assuming you painted over the sand castle. Sorry for all the questions, I'm just a little confused. But I really, really, love this!

November 19, 2008 8:44 AM

Hi Amy! Thanks for the great questions! I'm sorry I should have maybe given a brief description of what Gesso is-LOL! Gesso is a surface preparation primer, it comes in white and black but you can also add coloring to it. The kind that I use is Acrylic Gesso by Daler/Rowney (you can find it at Walmart in the crafts buy the paints) and it is white and very think--pastey like, but not as think as putty. You can use it as is or add color, glitter, shimmers and you can also water it down if you need it thinner. You can apply Gesso in many different ways and to many different surfaces--paint or sponge brush, an old CC, your fingers--it depends on the look you are going for. It drys pretty quick but you can also use a blowdryer or a heat tool but be very careful with the heating tool! Once the Gesso is dry you can leave it as is, sand it, paint over it, or add shimmer sprays. Gesso is one of those really great products that you can do sooooo many things with! Here's the steps broken down--easy peasy! ;)

1. Paint canvas with white acrylic paint.
2. Use a sponge roller to add the Gesso, but you don't want it smooth--go in different directions with the sponge roller giving it some texture.
3. Once Gesso is dry add Glimmer Mists (a liquid shimmer spray) until you get the look you would like.
4. Lightly sand and then add embellishments.

The picture with the sandcastle is just to show a before picture of the canvas. Also something to keep in mind, if you can purchase the canvas like this (something that is meant for a kid's craft) it will be a lot less expensive than the canvas from the paint department. Amy, thanks again for the great questions and yes that is a picture of my son. If you have any other questions just let me know. I love hearing from all of you and I will try to answer any questions I can.

Smiles!
Heidi

Sometimes it can be hard to design something that is very masculine and even harder to design something for a young man in his teens. Our oldest son falls into that category and though he sees my design work and tells me it looks nice I wanted to design something that would even make him say WOW!!

In the earlier part of the year our son and some of his friends got together and started up a band. Unfortunately between summer vacations, school, homework and jobs they are a little limited on their practice time. Although we haven't heard the band play together yet a father of one of the other boys reassures us that they are coming together as a band. Our son LOVES to play the guitar and spends most of his free time doing just that! I thought it would be great to design something just for him so I went searching through my box of alterable things and I found a small 5 x 5 canvas to alter.

Here is a picture of the canvas before I started working on it. I have a few of these and I think I purchased them this summer at the local $ store but I can't remember for sure.The first thing I did to the canvas was to paint it with a white acrylic paint and then I covered the top with gesso. When I applied the gesso I used a sponge roller going in all different directions to give it some texture. After the gesso was dry then I spritzed two different colors of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Black Gold and Slate onto the canvas and carefully used a heat tool to set the colors. I applied a few coats of the glimmer mist to get the look I wanted. Then I lightly sanded the top of the canvas. I also went around the canvas with Pitch Black Adirondack ink and embossed the edges using a silver EP. I took a few pictures while I was doing this but the light wasn't the best and the pictures are so dark you can't see all of the detail. :( But at least you know how it was done and you can see some of the background detail on the finished project.

Here is a picture of the finished design.It's a little canvas but there is a lot of detail and a whole lot going on! For the focal point I used the Dream stamp from the JustRite Harmony Classic Oval Stamper II Stamp Ensemble. This set comes with 6 Designer Borders & 6 Designer Centers along with an Oval 2-1/4 x 3-1/16 Harmony Stamper. The Designer Centers include the words Dream, Inspired, Believe, Explore, Create & Imagine. Here's a couple of close up pictures of the oval Dream stamp.To stamp the image I used Adirondack, Pitch Black Ink. I stamped the image twice using two different colors of WorldWin ColorMates CS, Deep Belgium Blue and Deep Heritage Black. I used a silver detailed EP on both pieces and then cut them out. I also added a blue star eyelet on top of the star from the stamped image. I mounted the two oval pieces onto chipboard and then layered them. After they were layered I slightly distressed the edges of the black CS. Then I misted them with Black Gold, Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels and heat set again. By doing this it gives kind of a distressed look to the EP which I think is a great effect.I also used the Rock Star stamp set from Inkadinkado for the music notes and guitar. Using Adirondack, Pitch Black Ink I stamped them onto WorldWin ColorMates CS, Deep Heritage Black and embossed with detailed silver EP. Then I cut out each piece and applied it to the canvas as shown.For the embellishments I used one of the Tim Holtz idea-ology Word Keys ( JOURNEY) which I attached to a piece of leather trim using my Crop-A-Dile and silver eyelets. I LOVE those keys!! They just add so much to a project! I also used two pieces of Tim Holtz Grungeboard, Elements Swirls and misted them with more of the Black Gold Glimmer Mist.And YES for those of you who might be wondering the young man in the picture is my son and YES he did say WOW this looks Amazing mom!! *wink* I took this picture of him just for this project.

Supplies~
Stamps~JustRite-Harmony Classic Oval Stamper II Stamp Ensemble, Inkadinkado-Rock Star
Ink~Ranger-Adirondack Pitch Black
Paper~WorldWin ColorMates CS-Deep Belgium Blue and Deep Heritage Black
Other~White Acrylic Paint, Gesso, Sponge Roller, Tattered Angels-Glimmer Mist, Black Gold & Slate, Sanding Block, Crop-A-Dile, Blue Star Eyelet, Chipboard, Tim Holtz-Word Keys & Grungeboard, Leather Trim, Silver Eyelets and a Sweet Picture. ;)

I hope you enjoyed seeing all the pictures of my altered canvas! I would love to hear what you think and if you have altered a canvas I would love to see a picture--leave me a comment or a link! Don't forget to check out the JustRite Blog and Gallery for more JustRite Stampers Inspiration. Hope you have a Terrific Tuesday!!

Smiles!
Heidi