A Mother's Love Canvas

For those that don't know me, I lost my mom to cancer in 2008, and she is the reason why I started my paper crafting passion.  What started to be something that I wanted to learn how to create a simple album to hold all her lovely memories turned into a total paper crafting passion.

A Mother's Love is something I created using some of the things my mom loved and enjoyed as an inspiration.  My mom had a passion for flowers, and I have never had a green finger, but I truly enjoy flowers that are made out of paper, they are totally easy to maintain, and I don't feel guilty if they die.

I wanted to created almost like an illusion of my mom.  It's been several years since she past away, and those first couple of years, it was very hard for me.  Seems like every time I closed my eyes she was there and I missed her terribly, but now I have to try to remember how she looked and how she talked, because they are slowly fading away.

My mom wasn't big into makeup, she was when she was much younger, but as she became a mom, she did less of makeup and more into her natural beauty.  In fact, I still remember how flawless her skin was.  She had gorgeous skin, and maybe it was due to her no wearing tons of makeup.  She lathered her skin with moisturizer, and I hated being reminded to moisturize, but now I just wish I had listened.  My mom was great gardener, she could literally make any plant come to life.  She definitely had a green thumb, where as I had a thumb that would kill just about any living plant.

To begin my project I tried to focus on the things she enjoyed and things she didn't like.  For instance, my mom would never have been caught dead in a dress, I think in my life time I recall her wearing a skirt only once.  She was never fond of anything with flower prints, so to spice it up, I added her favorite and not so favorite just because I can now play dress-up.  As I worked on this piece all I could think of was boy is she mad at me for dressing her up in a flowery dress, but since it's my art I think I can do it!

Materials Used:

• Sakura Hobby Craft - Terri Sproul Shimmer Mixers
• Sakura Hobby Craft - 3D Crystal Lacquer
• Gesso
• Modge Podge
• Scraps of pattern paper
• Want2Scrap - Frilly Flourish Swirl White Pearls
• Prisma Color Water Color Pencils
• Chicken Wire Stamp
• Scripture Stamp
• Acrylic Paint Various Colors
• Daler Rowney Watercolor pad
• Daler Rowney Simply  Oil Pastels
• Kraft Paper
• Distressing Ink
• Cotten Ball
• Writer Archival Quality Pigment Ink Pen
• 8 x 10 Daler Rowney Canvas
• Sharpie Fine Point Black Marker
• Brushes

My mom had big eyes, so I began drawing her face as I remember her on watercolor paper. I drew a somewhat's of a circle with a pencil and filled in the face.  Once you have drawn in the face.  Apply some Gesso allow to dry. Once dry you can start coloring in with your Prisma watercolor pencils.

Remember this is your drawing and it doesn't have to be perfect, but to tell you a short story, in 2001 my mom had collagen inserted into her lips.  My mom had beautiful lips prior to the collagen but she wanted her lips fuller, and the look on my face when I saw her come home with big thick lips was something I will never forget.  

Ok, so here is her in a skirt and trust me she wasn't one to wear skirts.  

If you look carefully the face is 3D and that is because my last step to creating the face was to apply Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer to the entire face and letting it dry for several hours.   

Once you have the face complete you can move on to playing dressup with scrap pieces of paper.  I used Sakura's Terri Sproul shimmer mixers to my mom's dress to give it more of a shimmery look and to top it off I applied a piece of trim.

Now the canvas is a Daler Rowney 8 x 10 canvas, and I prepped it up using some Gesso!  Once the Gesso dried up I started to paint.  I used various colors of acrylic paint and to my orange paint I applied a bit of Terri Sproul's Shimmer Mixers which I added a bit of Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer, it gave it a glazed shimmer look.

The butterflies I cut out pieces from BoBunny's Country Garden Collection applied some Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer allowed to dry for several hours and I had a eye popping 3D butterfly.  Prior to applying the Lacquer I dabbed the butterflies with some of Terri Sproul's Shimmer Mixer to give them some shimmer as well, then I coated with the 3D Lacquer.

Can you just see how it shimmers with Terri Sproul's Shimmer Mixers LOVE IT!

It doesn't have to be completed perfect because remember it is mixed media and it's suppose to be fun, not perfect.

I used random stamps that I had to stamped the canvas once I had adhered the pattern paper to the painted canvas.  I also had to throw in some of Want2Scrap Frilly Flourish Swirl White Pearls.  My mom loved jewelry so I had to make sure I added some of her favorites.  Now, she didn't like eyeshadow but that was just me playing dressup and it was fun to do.

I made the heart also using Terri Sproul's Yellow Shimmer Mixer and mixed with Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer.  I hope you enjoyed my A Mother's Love Canvas!  

Be sure to visit http://www.sakuracraft.com and take advantage of their coupons!