This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
Hi friends! The beautiful new products from the new Shine On release are now available for purchase, (click HERE to see the full release!) and I am absolutely obsessed with the new Cottagecore stamps. The sweet little cottages in the set are just begging to be colored, and so I decided to take it a step further with a little painted canvas. Wouldn’t this be so cute as a housewarming gift created in the colors of the new home?
I used a combination of acrylic markers and watercolors on this project, so the canvas needed a bit of prep before I could begin my painting. I covered this gesso canvas with watercolor grounds that I purchased from an art supply store so that I could use my watercolors. Watercolors require a porous surface to work properly, so typical stretched canvas will not work with watercolors. The watercolor grounds allow you to add a porous coating on any non-porous surface, making it perfect for watercoloring! After painting at least two coats on my canvas, I set it aside to dry for a few days before beginning the fun part of my project. This technique does require a bit of prep work, but if you do several canvases at once, it can be done assembly line style and then you have a bunch of surfaces all prepped and ready to go for future projects!
Once I had completed the prep work on my canvas and allowed it to dry completely, I stamped a sweet little scene using the images from both the Cottagecore and Cottagecore Flowers stamp sets from the new Shine On release. I stamped the house and tree first, then added a little flowered bower and fence leading into the garden, as well as a mailbox and sweet puppy in the front yard! I also added some individual cloud images in the sky, creating one of those perfect summer skies with crisp white clouds in a blueberry sky. Because I planned on using acrylic paint markers to color the images, I used silver pigment ink to stamp the images, keeping the images light but easily covered with the opaque paint markers. I allowed the images to dry a bit before painting.
After my stamping was complete, I used acrylic paint markers to paint the images; the bold, solid color of the acrylic paints works perfectly with the simple lines of these illustrations, I think! I kept the color palette fairly simple with coral, blue, and almond, which I think fit perfectly with the “cottagecore” theme. Once I had finished adding the acrylic paint and given it a bit of time to dry (not much time, for they dry pretty quickly!) I used my watercolors to add blue to the sky and green to the grass! The acrylic paint resists the watercolors, so I was able to fluidly paint the sky and lawn without worrying about the detailed paint work being marred. If there was any watercolor pooling on the acrylic painted areas, I simply dabbed it away with my microfiber cloth. I think the combo of the acrylic paint with the haze of blue and green watercolor works beautifully together, and makes it so worth the extra prep time for the canvas!!
Well, that’s all for my project today! I encourage you to try your stamps out on unexpected canvases and mix your coloring media… you can create lasting gifts that the recipient will treasure!!
Also, don’t forget about the two-day blog hop happening right now! I shared my blog hop post yesterday (click HERE to check it out!) but you can see the list of all of the Day 2 participants over on the Simon Says Stamp blog by clicking HERE. So much inspiration, prizes, and a free gift are up for grabs!!
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
Leave a Reply