Supplies Used
5 X 7 Artist canvas
Golden Brand Soft Gel Medium
Golden Brand Acrylic Glazing Liquid
Soft White Acrylic Paint
Titan Buff Acrylic Paint
Floral tissue paper
Plain white tissue paper
Cream printed paper
Vintage sheet music
Bible page or other printed manuscript
Sepia colored ink (Archival Brand)
Small square matte finish cardstock
Scrap of Scrim Fabric or other loose weave cloth
Pressed flower in plastic (Darice brand)
Love letter stamp
Lily bouquet stamp
Vintage button stamp
Vintage Wedding Couple stamp

**All stamps Oxford Impressions

Step 1
Prepare canvas with Golden Brand soft Gel Medium in a matte finish. Paint canvas with Acrylic paints using the colors Soft White and Titian Buff.  I worked horizontally, alternating between the white and the cream for a lightly streaked effect.

Step 2
Add torn papers to canvas using Gel Medium as glue.  Again working horizontally,  I added torn vintage sheet music to the upper left corner.  The second piece was glued to the middle right and the third piece was glued in the lower left. The dark floral paper at the top and bottom is scraps of printed tissue paper. I glued down a torn bible page from the book of Esther and then attached three torn pieces of cream floral paper.

Step 3
Add stamped images.  Since I planned this piece for to celebrate a vintage wedding, I stamped a love letter directly to the painted canvas, masking the torn papers around the image. The lily bouquet image was stamped in sepia ink on white tissue paper. I feared the image would not stamp clearly on the roughen surface of the canvas. I tore roughly around the image and glued in the lower left corner.  This placement made the bottom of the canvas “heavy” with dark color, so I added a vintage button stamped on cardstock to the top of the canvas for balance.

Step 4
Add textural elements.  I needed a bit of color near the middle of the canvas to offset the dark gold shades of the tissue papers.  For balance and interest, I added a yellow pansy that had been pressed between waxed papers. I trimmed closely, leaving the flower sealed in the wax paper to protect it and glued it to the canvas with the Gel Medium. To adjust the balance for the addition of the flower on the middle right, I added another small scrap of sheet music to the middle left.  I used strips of loosely woven cotton scrim fabric to fill in the bottom strip where there was only a painted surface.  More printed material would have cluttered the composition and the fabric had great texture.  I coated the fabric with Gel Medium and adhered it to the canvas. I used my paint brush to manipulate the fibers until they slightly overlapped the other elements.

Step 5
Unify the background and add central element. To make the background seem more cohesive, I washed the entire piece with a coating of Titan Buff mixed with Golden Brand Acrylic Glazing Liquid. It toned down some of the brighter elements and made the background seem more unified. Lastly, I added the central element, the wedding couple. The image was stamped with Sepia colored ink on matte-coated cardstock.