Creative Imaginations and Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Blog Hop

Creative Imaginations and Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft designers have teamed up for a fabulous blog hop from August 27-31st! Hop with us today for craft ideas, inspiration and tutorials!  You should be arriving from the blog of the talented Shelley Hamilton.  To start the hop from the beginning, click HERE. 

For my project, inspired by THIS post by Donna Downey, I tried something I've never done before. I created a 16 x 20 inch canvas--

Supplies: Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gelatos™ (Grape, Blueberry, Green Tea, Tangerine, Butter Cream, Bubble Gum, Mango, Pistachio, Red Cherry, Cotton Candy, Coconut), Stamper's Big Brush Pens (Scarlet Red 118, May Green 170, Nougat 178, Magenta 133, White 101, Manganese Violet 160, Dark Chrome Yellow 109, Cold Grey III 232, Cobalt Blue 143, Sky Blue 146, Deep Scarlet Red 219, Permanent Olive Green 167, Orange Glaze 113, Pink Madder Lake 129, Black 199), Twinkling H2Os (Alfalfa, Blue Zircon, Mango Mamba, Poppy Red, Vavoom), Existencil Expressions Stencil, Other (Spellinbinders Nestablities Wonderful Wings, Penny Black 30-114 Puzzle Parts, Martha Stewart Circle Punch, Krylon Matte Finish, Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots, Twine, SRM Stickers)

 I have a short photo tutorial for you on creating this canvas, but before I share that, let me provide you with the link to the next stop on the hop, so you can keep hopping right away if you want to. :)  Next up is Lynne Forsythe- I can't wait to see what she's created!
Don’t forget to leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win!  Creative Imaginations and Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft will each be giving away a $50 prize pack!  The blog hop will end at midnight on August 31^st.  The two winners will be announced on the companies’ blogs on September 4^th.     

Here's a few photos I took along the way as I created my canvas.

I began by dividing up the canvas into 4 x 4 squares:

Next, I colored directly onto the canvas using Gelatos™, blending with my fingers as I went. I worked square by square, blending so that the darker color was on the outer perimeter of the square and the lighter towards the middle:

To lighten the centers of the squares and for additional blending, I rubbed a baby wipe in the center of the square.  You can see the difference this made on the next photo, the square on the left has been blended with the baby wipe and the one on the right has not:

Then for additional depth and richness of color I painted Twinkling H2Os around the perimeter of each square:

I blended each square a little bit more using the Coconut Gelato™:

Once all of the squares were colored and I was happy with how they looked, I sprayed a couple of coats of Matte Finish to seal in the Gelato™ and Twinkling H2O background.  This step also makes it super easy to blend the Stamper's Big Brush Pens.

Next I combined the Existencil and Stamper's Big Brush Pens to color a bit more on the background, blending colors with my fingertip as I went.

I added black and white shading, blending with my fingertip as I went.

I colored the die cut butterfly embellishments with Gelatos™, stamped them using Penny Black 30-114 Puzzle Parts and Stamper's Big Brush Pens, and added SRM Stickers to banners. Finally, I layered the butterlies onto the canvas, adhering with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots.

Thanks so much for visiting!

It's been an honor to take part in this hop.  Don't forget to visit your next stop - Lynne Forsythe.