Altered Canvas

Tiny canvases can make such a big statement.

Start by giving your canvas a base coat of white paint (or white gesso). Gather up your scraps. Here are some of mine left from recent projects, as well as an image from an old Vogue magazine that really appealed to me.
Start by collaging your paper elements onto the freshly painted canvas. Here I used rubber cement (spread on clumpy and thick for texture).
After the main elements were adhered, I painted a layer of clear gesso on top.
For a distressed look, I used my fingers to rub white paint onto the canvas, making sure that there was less paint on the main elements (the legs, shoes and skirt) of the image that I wanted to focus on. I added more layers of paper and used white and green paint to add more layers.
Fingers really are a fabulous tool for painting...
Here is the finished image. Once all of the elements are added and I think it is complete, I will add one more layer of transparent gesso to seal everything.
I also painted the sides of the canvas. I let my heat tool get very close to the paint so that it bubbled up a little. If you try this, be sure to do it in an area with good ventilation.
I also used black crackle paint to line the edge of the back side of the canvas, for a suble effect. Finally, I wrapped tulle around the edges of half of the canvas. I secured the tulle to the back with staples, and used a strong clear glue to secure the tulle to the front.
Next I added some letter stickers to form a phrase that I thought went well with my mood as well as the collage. You could also use cut up words from a book, stamped letters or even typed or computer printed words as an accent.
Here is the finished canvas. It is about 5x5 inches.Thanks for looking! Please let me know if you have any questions!