Ephemera Photo Canvas

Today I wanted to start on a canvas that is so versatile...today we're going to be building foundation of the canvas and tomorrow we'll be bringing in the ephemera & photos.

You're going to need the following supplies today:

Canvas (Gameboard or other sturdy foundation)
Ephemera
Corrugated Cardboard
Collage Glue ~ I'm going to be using Dina Wakley Gel Medium
Paints - I'm using Distress Paints
Water

Instructions:

1. Begin by tearing your ephemera into medium/small sized pieces.  Mine are about 2x2 - 3x3 and I have a few longer pieces as well..

2. Adhere your pieces of ephemera to the outside edges of the canvas.  You don't need to worry about the center, we'll take care of that in the next step.  Be sure to let your adhesive dry completely before moving on.

3. Tear the corrugated board into any sizes you want to work with and adhere it to the center portion of the canvas.

I wanted to add a bit of a twist so I glued one large piece of cc to one side of the canvas but on the other side I glued down smaller torn bits in a variety of directions.  Just helps break up the collage and gives it a bit more interest.  Let the glue dry completely.

4. Paint the entire canvas with a unifying color.  I used Antique Linen Distress Paints.  I used this paint because it's got a nice transparent quality - it lets the ephemera show through but it's still got a nice uniform color.

If you don't have Distress paints then you can use regular acrylic paint watered down a bit to make them more translucent.

5. Next I wanted to add a bit of color so I rubbed a bit of Tumbled Glass here and there.  Not real even...just some highlights to bring out the texture of the cardboard.

6. Now I watered down some white paint and flicked it over the canvas.  

I'm going to stop here as it will take a while for all of the layers to dry completely.  Tomorrow we'll pick it up starting off with making photo "boxes" out of ephemera.  You'll also need 9 - 2x2 images - these can be photos, collage images, stamped images, etc.

See you then!