The Mad Crafter Lady: To the moon and back...

It's been a while since I have been able to escape to my craft area and make some magic happen. Today I had even actually planned on doing some crafts with my 2.5 year old. However, just as with most toddlers, planning activities doesn't always work out the way you want. She seemed to be completely content ignoring me and watching Blue's Clues. So that's what she did. The good news was that I was finally able to come and start a project I've been dying to do for a while!

I think I have said before that I love making things with canvases and with this particular project I definitely wanted to use a canvas that I could hang up in my daughter's room.

I started out with a blank, white 11" x 14" canvas board and coated it a couple of times with gesso.

I knew that I wanted some sort of texture for the background, but couldn't figure out what. I flipped through my binder of stencils and came across Prima's Crackle Stencil. I used my homemade modeling paste and added the crackle texture all over the canvas.

Never having done any sort of galaxy background, I was a little unsure where to start. I googled a few techniques, but none really stood out to me. Instead I decided to just wing it. Which has really worked in my favor lately.

Using Dylusions sprays in After Midnight, London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, and Bubblegum Pink, I went to town spraying in no particular pattern all over the canvas. Then I misted the whole thing with water to blend the colors and dried it.

To achieve the space-like effect, I used an ink dabber with my black archival ink and went all over the front of the canvas. I concentrated more color on the edges and in lighter spots around the center.

Once that was dry and I was happy with how it looked, I splattered some of the Dylusions White Linen on the front and glued down some small bling.

The letters are actually made of wood that I heat embossed powder to (and I know I've raved about the magical awesomeness that is heat embossing.) The color I used is from Michael's and it's called Vintage Mint. I just LOVE how it turned out and it went quicker (and somewhat less messier) than either inking or painting them would have gone for me.

Finally I glued the letters to the front, and voila! Done.

I really had meant to take a step by step picture of my progress, but I got carried away and by the time I realized I hadn't snapped a picture at all, I was gluing the letters down! This was still a fun project that I wanted to share. Will hang it up in my daughter's room tomorrow!