Today was a bit sparkly…literally. My niece, Liz, requested a canvas painting that was a bit different from my normal style, and it turned out really pretty. My family loves hunting. They wear camo. Their walls are adorned with deer heads, among other stuffed animals. I am basically “the princess that moved to the city,” but I can respect a different style.
Liz wanted a black and white striped canvas board with a glittery buck. The concept was easy enough, but I struggled a lot with the white and black stripes. After one failed attempt, I went to Google and searched how to paint straight stripes. The results were upsetting, but also humorous, i.e. draw two dots and connect them, don’t take your eyes off them, don’t look away. Ridiculous.
I ended up just trying my best. This is always my go to motto with crafts. I put painters tape on the canvas board and I think it turned out pretty straight. The next step was to paint the black stripes. I use acrylic paints because I have them for painting wine glasses. Painting on canvas is kind of awesome. It dries super fast, which allows for multiple coats in one sitting. The black stripes were painted on and now my painting resembled a famous dress from 2015 (well, to some of you).
While the paint was drying, I used my Silhouette CAMEO to create a stencil. I use adhesive vinyl that I found on Amazon. I typically use the Silhouette adhesive vinyl, but I was trying to save some money, and honestly this stuff worked really well.
I purchased a design I found in the Silhouette store. If you’re not familiar with the machine, it cuts out any stencil pattern you put into the program. It does a bunch of other stuff too, but I haven’t played around with it enough to know it all. I struggled at first with the adhesive vinyl sticking to everything, but trust me, you slowly get better.
Once the vinyl was attached to the canvas, it was time to make this thing sparkle. I used Elmer’s glue and just kind of spread it around in the inside of the stencil.
I worked fast so it wouldn’t dry and then I piled on the glitter. This took me back to my childhood. I used to love adding glitter to crafts. I went a little overboard with the glitter because I wanted to give it a thicker look. I wasn’t sure what I was going to uncover when I dumped off the excess glitter, but the end product was gorgeous and exactly what Liz ordered.
My daughter , the princess from Pittsburgh, never ceases to amaze me with her creativity. I loved this and I’m sure Liz will too.