"Enjoy the Little Things..." - Canvas

Inspired by a canvas created by the amazingly talented Donna Downey, I decided to create my own version of this "bird's nest" canvas. I had no idea what I was going to do so I just started with a blank 12x12 canvas purchased from Michaels.

The only thing I was sure of was that the sky had to be blue and I had to use this cute little bird's nest that I found at the Dollar Store for $1.50. I sponge painted the canvas background in baby blue, then used some bubble wrap and white acrylic paint all-over. I dry-brushed it to soften the design a little bit.

I felt that it needed a splash of colour so I did a few brush strokes with Light Leaf Green acrylic paint.

Flying by the seat of my pants, I let my mind wander and decided to photocopy a photo of a tree branch. I used Gel Medium and transferred the photo onto the canvas. It turned out better than I expected.

I then mixed some molding paste with white acrylic paint and used a Crafter's Workshop Mini Chicken Wire mask to add a little dimension to the canvas. I added three strips of 7 Gypsies tape in the bottom left corner and I painted one of the butterflies on the tape baby blue.

The base of the canvas was complete! I painted three styrofoam eggs with white acrylic paint and glued them into the nest along with a few feathers and a chipboard bird that I stamped and cut out from a 7 Gypsies stamp set. I cut out some green leaves and added them to the branch for colour and drew and cut out three flying birds from black cardstock and popped them up on the canvas.

The quote is one of my favorites so I decided to use it on this canvas.

This was a fun project to work on and put me in the mood to create another one. I do have a few bird's nests left over so I need to get my creative juices flowing and do something completely different.