My First Mixed Media Canvas Projects...

I have become fascinated with some of the Mixed Media projects that I have been seeing around Pinterest.  Since I had many of the products already in my stash to try it without having to spend a bunch, I jumped right in.  I went around the house, yard and garage to pick of some "items" to include in my first project.  You never know what you'll find.  I came up with a shoebox full of items to choose from.

This first canvas is using a picture of Connor and Shadow.  I have wanted to scrapbook this picture with a title of "Me and My Shadow" since I took it.  Figured I'd use it for this project since it was one that really captures how close these two are.  It's hard to believe that he was scared of her as a puppy but 2 years later they are inseparable when he comes over.

I just glued a bunch of items that I found around the house/garage/yard to a canvas then started spraying inks and mists to create the Ombre colorization.  Couldn't make the transition from white to blue as well as the other colors transitioned so I decided to stop before I wound up with something I couldn't fix.

I used Puffy Stick On Letters to create the words Me and My Shadow. 
Mom thought I should highlight the words so they stood out more,
but I this type of project is supposed to be more like
an Eye Spy project, the more you look - the more you see.

These pictures were taken while it was hung on the wall so I couldn't get a very good picture of the top details so I took pictures of the bottom details just to show you the different "findings" I used.

There is a "Guardian Angel" pin  added over a heart to symbolize how protective Shadow is of Connor.  The Flower is an old button that was all scratched up, the stem is a dowel plug and the leaves are some jewelry beads.  under this corner I used a piece of cardboard that had the top layer torn to show the corrugation. 

Here I added a Tim Holtz Time clock.  The hands are pointed towards the 20 seconds at the bottom and 1 O'clock at the top.  They were set that say to document the year  2013 (1 o'clock is 13 hundred hours military time).  The Cherish tag was added last because I was too impatient to wait for things to dry and was using the heat gun, a little piece of the photo melted and had to be covered...I thought this tag would be appropriate.

This is the side of the canvas, there is a felt doghouse  and a doghouse charm, more buttons, beads, and other oddities you find in a junk drawer.  The "hook" on the bottom right is used for hooking the window shades strings to the wall.  I put it there so I can hang the "clicker" that we use when training the dogs...Connor loves to play hide and seek and would use the clicker to call the dogs when he was hidden. 

The texture on the photograph is from spraying polyeurathane on the whole piece to seal it.  This gives the picture that "mat" texture instead of a glossy finish.

This is the type of art that you either like or don't...and I'm really starting to like it a lot....so there will be more to come.

Freda