Altered Shadow Box Canvas

I always love finding creative, fun ways to display pictures. I have a gazillion photos on my computer. My kids are so dang cute I can't help myself and I just love taking pictures. So it has been my goal to get those pictures off the computer and seen - whether in albums or on the wall. I also love, love, love how some artists mix photos with altered canvases. So, I thought it would be super fun to turn a standard canvas around and use the back like a shadow box. I thought if I wrapped twine around the top, it would be perfect to hang a picture with tiny clothespins.

I wanted to have a very shabby, neutral, soft look to the finished frame. So I used lots of white, cream, browns, and light aqua. The first thing I did was cover the outer edge with brown scrapbook paper using Mod Podge. Once that was dry, I painted it with the various shades I mentioned and did some stamping too. I set the canvas aside to dry and worked on the little piece above. I tore a piece of scrapbook paper to the size I need, inked the edges with Distress Stain in Walnut, and added some paint with my good ol' fingers. I added some stamping and paint to the chipboard letters as well. These were from a Tim Holtz collection of chipboard letters I had found on clearance. Yippee for red clearance stickers! :)

Then on the inside I used a waterproof black pen and wrote some words. You could write a poem, a sweet love note, or a favorite quote...anything really. It really is for visual texture and sentiment. I painted over the words with white acrylic and gesso. Not all the words are completely visible, but that creates such pretty texture. I added stamps too.

For the hearts I used some small wooden ones I had in my stash. I stamped them with a patterned stamp in Walnut, then painted over them with gesso. For the larger heart on the bottom right corner, I attached one of the wooden heart to a larger one that had been cut from an old box. Gotta love using recycled stuff, right!? Before gluing the pieces together, I added a small piece of cream colored fiber paper to the back.

Now it was time to glue it all together. I took all the pieces and used E6000 to secure all the various parts. I painted some mini clothespins (adorable!) with aqua acrylic paint and tied some thick twine around the canvas. I used some adhesive cream lace along the bottom. I find these at Michaels on rolls. I love that all I have to do is peel and stick!

 

 

Now all I had to do was add a cute picture. Adorable!!

I had a great time making this altered, shadow box canvas and I can't wait to make another one! I hope you are having a beautiful weekend!

Happy Creating,