Crafters are always looking to try new things, new surfaces to work on.  When this editor starting rubber stamping many years ago, I started on paper just like everyone else, but quickly became bored.  I tried my hand at all different types of surfaces and soon found out that I had a passion for wood.  I love stamping and painting on wood!  It is such a great surface to apply all different types of mediums to it.  In this post, our guest blogger Carmen Whitehead, shares some of her wood painting ideas with us.

As an artist I love trying new things, whether it’s a product, technique or in this case, a canvas.  I had never worked on wood canvas before, especially one that had so much texture and natural feel/look to it.  My small canvases I purchased from www.Redeemwood.com out of Colorado.  They are assembled and refurbished from recycled pallet wood and available in various sizes.  I was able to create a piece using the same materials I would used on a regular canvas.

Materials

• 5” x 6” wood canvas
• Various colors in craft acrylic paints
• Modeling paste
• Matte gel medium
• Fudeball 1.5mm pen
• Stencils (mini chicken wire, Quasi pattern, Mini Tile texture) all from ArtistCellar.com
• Ranger Jet Black archival ink
• Flower stamps, I used paperwingsproductions.com (Spring Thing)

Tools

• Small brushes
• Makeup sponges
• spatula

Instructions

1. Use makeup sponge to apply paint for background. Apply to sides also.  Try to select a translucent shade so the wood grains and knots will still show through. 
2. Use stencils to add more dimension to the canvas and create a sky and grass look. 
3. Mix light blue paint and modeling paste and apply with spatula using the mini tile texture stencil. 
4. Paint flower(s) using acrylic paint and small brushes 
5. Once paint is completely dry, use Fudeball Pen to outline flower. I like to use a “sketchy” pattern when outlining, instead of a clean line. 
6. Using the Spring Thing stamps and archival ink, stamp flowers and the word Bloom onto canvas. 
7. Seal canvas with matte gel medium. 

Tips

• Don’t worry so much about any nails or cracks that may be on the wood canvas. Those elements add character and a folk art look to the piece.
• Add a saw tooth hanger to the back of canvas for easy hanging.

About the Artist:   Carmen Whitehead is a self-taught mixed media artist with recently published art in Somerset Studio magazine.  She has a love all things vintage and incorporates that into her artwork by using vintage ephemera and laces.  You can see more of her work, tutorials and shop on her blog .

Blog:  www.serendipitystudiobycw.blogspot.com

shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SerendipityStudioCW