Steampunk Travellers Mixed Media Canvas (by Anne)

Oh my goodness – I really enjoyed myself with this Steampunk canvas – I just love to get myself lost a bit of fantasy. I used lots of Chocolate Baroque stamps from my stash and two of the new stamps from Mark Gould (Sailor Jim and The Aviator).

I first cut 2 pieces of left over mount board and trimmed them to approx. 25 X 31cm and 31 X 41 cm. The back board was coated front and back with Bronze Powertex. The second board was coated with Ivory Powertex.

I used a page from an old atlas and glued it to the board using Easy Coat Mat decoupage medium. Note: There are some lovely map themed Rice Papers on the Powertex website.

I then applied some Easy Structure paste through stencils from my stash to create some wave and cloud textures.

Next I applied elements from decorative rice papers (sea themed and pocket watches) using Easy Coat medium. It looks like the pocket watches sheet I used is out of stock but there is a similar Victorian Steampunk sheet  available. Tip: draw around the parts of the image that you desire using a water brush or pen, then gently pull away the image from the sheet. This avoids harsh cut edges and the images will blend better into the background.

I also applied a little of the new Golden Metallic Acrylic Ink through my stencils, and onto areas of the pocket watches.

I next stamped my images using Versafine Ink (Onyx Black) onto recycled tissue paper (packaging). I also stamped some onto white card using Versafine (Vintage Sepia), cut them into little sentiment strips and edged them with a dark brown alcohol marker. The images and text sentiments were applied to the canvas using Easy Coat decoupage medium.

I added a little colour over the decoupaged stamp images using Golden Metallic and Aqua Acrylic Inks. These inks have a lovely translucency so do not obliterate the image beneath. You don’t need to be super careful with colouring either.

My characters were stamped onto smooth stamping card using Versafine (Vintage Sepia), cut out and coloured with pencils. I applied Ivory Powertex to the backs to seal them, curving and doming them slightly. I coated the fronts with a layer of Powerwax to protect them. I chose this option as I was concerned that a slow drying wet medium might smudge some of the pencil colouring.

I used one of the MDF Heart Flowers (approx. 12.5cm across) to make an embellishment for the top. The moulded flower was from my stash. It had been made with Stone Art and Ivory Powertex mixed into a clay and used with one of my moulds. When dry it was painted with Easy Varnish tinted with Burgundy Powercolor, then dry brushed with more varnish tinted with Silver, Rich Gold and Copper Colortricx. The MDF flower was coated with Bronze Powertex and the moulded flower glued to the centre with a little Easy Structure paste. Easy Structure paste and Powertex were used to glue the embellishment to the top of the canvas.

Black cotton netting was treated with Bronze Powertex and applied to the canvas base and diagonally across the middle. The characters were then positioned and glued down with Easy Structure Paste (i.e. using it as a 3D glue). Care was taken not to smudge the images with paste or Powertex. Any slight mishaps were wiped away quickly with a damp sponge.

I gathered together lots of Steampunk and nautical embellishments from my stash including die cut ship wheels, anchors, gears, swirls etc. I also had a stash of shells created using paper clay and moulds (already coloured with ink sprays). The embellishments were all coated with Powertex (Transparent or Bronze) and glued in place, using Easy Structure paste where needed. I also dropped some 3D Sand and Balls into wet Powertex for added texture.

In addition I used some recycled gear cogs from the inside my finished double sided tape rollers. These are plastic so I used copper gilding wax to colour the top surface (Powertex doesn’t stick to plastic) and embedded them well with Easy Structure paste and Powertex coated card pieces etc.

Finally I dry brushed Easy Varnish tinted with Bronze Gold Colortricx lightly over the embellishments to enhance them.

The canvas could be mounted into a 3D box frame to fully protect it from dust etc. It could also be hung directly – perhaps holes cut in the top edge and a string would look quite nautical? If hanging without framing I would advise that everything be fully sealed with Easy Varnish (the characters with more layers of Powerwax); particularly the areas coated with transparent Powertex (coloured Powertex is already weather resistant). It could then be cleaned with a damp cloth (or even rinsed under the tap).

I hope that you like my fantasy creation. I have included a few more pics for more close up views, Anne x.