My first canvas art + a layout

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Hello and happy Wednesday, scrappy friends :)  I hope you're having a wonderful week, so far.  I wanted to share a project I've been working on for a few months now.  I've been dying to try to make a canvas piece for a long time, but I was never brave enough.  I also wanted to create a piece to hang in my daughter's room.  Her bedding has horses all over it, so I wanted to include a little horsie and create some sort of landscape.  I wanted it to be kind of abstract, yet kind of realistic.

I jumped in headfirst and purchased a 16x20canvas and just went for it.  I gave the whole thing a coat of gesso and then grabbed an old book that had been torn up (thanks to my girls!) and started mod-podging some pages down.  I love the look of text!  Then I grabbed some pieces of colored tissue paper & old patterned paper...and started tearing it and covering it with mod podge...it's like easy brush-on glue.  It's awesome at sealing all those crunchy layers of paper.  Lots and lots of layers of tissue paper.

Then I misted some, used some masks, did some stamping, used some washi tapes....I didn't go for the modeling paste on this one.  Since it was my first one, I was just experimenting.

I've had those cheesy little pink rhinestone flowers since the beginning of scrappy time, so I figured I'd use them for a pop of pink at the bottom.  I used green twine for the stems, and I also used twine inside the sun.  It's hard to see in this picture, but I embossed the clouds with my swirl Cuttlebug folder.

Anyway, this is the finished product, and I think I really like it!  I will go perfect in Paige's room, and now I know that I can do something other than layouts from time to time.  I have another empty canvas waiting...I just need an idea to pop into my head :)

Here's a layout before I go...it was up on the My Scraps blog a few weeks ago.  I'm trying to dig back into my older stash of papers and use them!  I still had a lot left from my Echo Park For the Record lines, so I broke this one out and went for it.  I wanted to use a lot of the colors & patterns, so I decided to use strips.

That's it for today...I thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you have a GREAT day!  I'll be back later this week for my last page & tutorial using this month's Main Kit at My Creative Scrapbook.  And don't forget about the Crop going on this weekend at My Scraps!