Reverse Canvas Butterfly "Specimen Box" ~ Creative Embellishments

Hi There! Today, I'm sharing a fun new Mixed Media Reverse Canvas made for Creative Embellishments. I have used Graphic 45's Nature Sketchbook collection to create this Butterfly "Specimen Box".

First, I wrapped the back of the canvas with a sheet of the 12x12 paper and cut out another piece of the patterned paper to fit inside the opening. I added some floral Excelsior around the inside of the canvas' opening and along the bottom edge of the canvas. I used Creative Embellishments chipboard Mini Mushrooms to embellish the lower left corner of the canvas. I embossed the mushrooms using Stampendous Frantage Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel and then added some details to the mushrooms using Croco Crackling Color in Bronze. I used the CE chipboard Flourish 10 to embellish the right side of the canvas - I embossed the flourish using Distress Embossing Powder in Old Paper and then added some Distress Crackle Paint in Peeled Paint to the flourish for extra colour and texture. Once the chipboard pieces were in place, I added the fussy-cuts from the Graphic 45 papers (paper edges inked with Distress Ink in Ground Espresso). Then I added some Prima Art Stones and Mini Art Stones around the bottom of the canvas and the bottom of the opening. I splattered everything with watered-down black gesso. And finally, I did some dry-brushing around the canvas with Art Alchemy Metallique Paint in Ancient Coin.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

'Ozymandias'-Inspired Reverse Canvas ~ Creative Embellisments

I have a new project to share with you today using Creative Embellishments chipboard and a Prima Relics & Artifacts resin piece. Every time I looked at this resin piece, it made me think of the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, so I decided to create a reverse canvas using the resin piece and a quote from the poem!

Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

I started out with a 6x6 canvas that was quite thick and coated the inside of the back and edges with heavy black gesso. I then wrapped the back of the canvas and sides with the "Forgotten City" paper from the Graphic 45 Kraft Reflections collection and inked the corners with Distress Ink in Black Soot.

I chose the Creative Embellishments Greek Frame and Spiral Square Panel because they suited the 'ancient ruin' theme of the canvas so well. I painted the chipboard pieces with Heavy Black Gesso and then added White Crackle Texture Paste, intentionally leaving a few spots on the chipboard black. Finally, once the crackle paste had dried, I randomly inked spots on the chipboard with Distress Ink in Antique Linen. I painted the resin piece with Clear Crackle Texture Paste and, once dry, inked parts of it with the Antique Linen Distress Ink. I raised the resin piece up about an inch from the bottom of the opening using spacers, giving the design extra dimension and revealing more of the Spiral Square Panel section at the back. I printed the quote on reverse side of some leftover Graphic 45 Kraft paper and inked the edges with Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Black Soot - I attached the quote with 3D Foam tape. I added some decorative grass, Prima flowers and Prima paperclips and finished off the embellishing by adding some of the white crackle paste in places on the flowers and then inking the dried paste with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  Here are a few more angles and close-ups!

This piece is already up on the wall in my craft room - it is one of my favourite pieces that I've created with great personal appeal for me.