Stamps can turn anyone into an artist. Even little kids. My younger princess, Akshu just loves stamping and she has also learnt to use the matching dies and die cut what she has stamped. She needs a little help every now and then for sure (specially with the Big Shot machine), but she loves tinkering and making pretty things.
So, on her teacher’s birthday, we decided to use her new skills and make a canvas art as a gift. Here’s what we came up with:
(Sorry for the poor picture quality. I’m working on it!)
Here’s what we used:
One 16 x 20 canvas (I bought mine from Michael’s store with a coupon, you can also get similar one on Amazon)
Ink pads (red, blue, green) from Studio G. I looked but could not find the exact packet I used. I had purchased mine for my local craft store during last Christmas, but you can always substitute with these mini distress ink pads. I love these. They are economical and oh so useful.
Black sharpie
I also used the leaves and butterfly stamps from Martha Stewart heat embossing kit. But you can totally use the leaves + dies from Stampin Up Flower Patch stamp set. Or you can get the exact same butterfly punched using this punch from Martha Stewart.
As fillers, I used some small flower punches that I had collected over the years.
For background, I used a standard watercolor set from Crayola.
For adhering all pieces on canvas, we used mod podge.
Oh, when I put it that way it does look like a lot of stuff, doesn’t it? But most items I already had in my stash :-) The only new additions were the stamp sets from Stampin Up and Martha Stewart.
Here’s how we made this piece of art:
1. I mixed a pale green / blue watercolor and Akshu painted the whole canvas with one layer. We let it dry.
2. While it was drying we made several stamped and die cut / punched images of flowers, leaves and butterfly.
3. After our canvas dried, Akshu wrote “ BE HAPPY” and Diya made the cute little exclamation mark somewhere in the center. No measurements, we just eyeballed it. We did this first with pencil and then we went over the same with black sharpie.
4. Lastly we laid all the flowers and made sure we were happy with the layout. Once we had what we wanted, we adhered all the pieces together with our favorite adhesive – mod podge. For butterflies, we only adhered their bodies and left their wings floating.
Akshu’s teacher was so happy with the gift. She loved it!
I find stretched canvas a very nice medium for home décor or even gifts. You can use it for watercolor / acrylic paints etc or go crazy with stamps / punches / dies and mod podge. Making something like this with kids may seem daunting at first, but do give it a try. I’m sure you will be amazed with the creativity of these little minds.
Happy crafting!!
xoxo, ~Varada
