SMALL COLLAGE ON CANVAS

Michael's had a sale recently on their gallery canvas so I picked up a few for gift making.  I love the way the canvas looks when the sides are painted but I don't like, so much, that the canvas has "give" when you try to adhere the paper...but the smaller sizes seem to work well enough.

With that said, I completed two 4" x 4"collaged canvases for a friend's Birthday.  I used Liqutex Acrylic Matte Gel Medium for adhering the paper but wasn't satisfied with the wrinkles when they dried.  Even with the small size, it was difficult to put enough pressure on the surface of the canvas to adequately burnish the collage pieces.  To remedy this, I thought that I would try applying the gel medium directly to the top and sides of the completed canvases by using a pallet knife…making sure to spread a generous coat to fill the valley's that the wrinkles made.  I read somewhere where that this can be done to give the appearance of faux encaustic.  It worked!  Now…if I had only thought of applying a coat of furniture wax to the surface, I am sure it would look very much like encaustic! Next time!

All the collage pieces are from magazines, books or found objects (tea bag).

Of course…after I completed these two little ditties, I found wooden like signs (made of MDF) at Michaels that would be perfect for collage and that were a fraction of the cost of canvas.  $2.00 for a 4"x4" or  2"x6", $3.00 for a 5"x7", and $5.00 for a 5"x11"!  (They had additional sizes too.)  And...I had a 30% off coupon for the total purchase!  Whoop Whoop!  You better believe that I loaded up the cart!

You can see from the photo that they have a beveled edge and that the inside of the back is also painted.  One of my friends suggested that the inside back could be used for making a diorama.  What a great idea!  Also, wouldn't these be great to adhere several different sizes together to make a cute display box?  Oooooh…the ideas they are just a churning!

Until next time!

Hugs,
Ginny