Canvas Corp Brands 4" X 4" Canvas Challenge

When I was a little girl, my favorite day of the school year was Valentine's Day.  It came at the perfect time of the year when we were cooped-up inside due to cold, rainy weather.  I enjoyed having craft time to make a pretty box for my Valentines with purple, red, and pink crepe paper and construction paper.  Ribbons, hearts, doilies, and markers usually completed the project.  I can remember taking my time picking out the perfect box of Valentines for my classmates.  Should I choose Scooby Doo or Holly Hobbie?  Then I had the task of addressing the Valentines to my classmates.  I chose my favorite Valentine cards for my favorite classmates.  If I didn't like you, you were sure to get a Velma Valentine.  (Ironically Velma is my favorite character now, LOL!)  My teachers usually wouldn't let us read our Valentines at school; we had to wait until we got home.  Oh, the agony of waiting!

When Canvas Corp Brands sent me a 4" X 4" stretched natural canvas to use in creating a project that would represent me as an artist, I decided to make a Valentine.  Here's how my project turned out:

First of all, I painted the entire canvas with gesso (made by Golden).

The little stretched canvas is natural, but as an artist I tend to gesso everything, so I gessoed this one to make it seem like a small primed canvas.

Then I cut out the notebook paper image from the 7 Gypsies Ordre du Jour 8" X 8" 2-sided paper pad with deckle scissors.

J'adore the images in this pack!

I glued it to the canvas, and then painted an apple on an ATC canvas.

It's a tiny little painting!  I cut the ATC down to only 2" X 2" 

Since I'm an oil painter I wanted to use that medium for this project.

I then glued it in the middle of the 7 Gypsies paper, and added the wording with an ink pen.  Et, voilà!  A cute little Valentine reminiscent of a note passed during class.

I love how the 7Gypsies paper appears to be wrinkled.  It's designed that way, but it's perfectly smooth to the touch.  Many of the papers have trompe l'oeil in their designs!

I do like the little canvases.  This project is an easy one, and you could easily make a pretty collage with the 7 Gypsy papers and write a poem or love note to your Valentine!

Until next time…

Blessings!
Ricki Jill