"Mothers Inspired the Soul" Canvas Class at Arnolds Scrapbooking

We ran this class twice as it was so popular so I haven't been able to put the instructions up until we had finished both classes. Today I had a real newbie scrapper who did this class and she did a great job of this, so it's suitable for all levels of scrapper from newbie to advanced.

I've used the gorgeous Melissa Francis papers but you could adapt this layout to use any two papers from the same range.

This canvas is a 10 x 15cm canvas that has been painted using a sponge roller and a pearlescent pink paint by monte marte. I used papers by Melissa Francis to create this layout. I have distressed the edge of my papers and then inked them but feel free to leave this step out if you don’t like a distressed effect to your page. (A small sponge is included in your kit for this purpose).

 

1. Distress and ink the edges of the 19 x 23.5cm patterned paper.
2. Using a scalpel cut the points of the bunting flags to allow your photo to poke slightly under the cut out pieces.
3. Using the scallop edge head on the sew easy tool mark out a pattern down the right edge of the page running vertically. Sew this pattern with pink floss. (I find it easier to sew all the way to the end and then turn around and come sew back the way you came, thus filling in the blanks).
4. Carefully adhere the 19 x 23.5cm patterned paper to the right hand side of the canvas (make sure you don’t glue down the points of the bunting flags yet.
5. Take the 5cm wide piece of patterned paper and apply the Martha Stewart border punch down the left side of the piece of paper. Ink the edges and apply down the left side of the canvas.
6. Adhere the pink braid along the bottom edge of the canvas wrapping around the back of the canvas and sticking down well. I like to apply a wet glue to the ends of the braid to stop it fraying.
7. Ink the edges of the 15.5 cm half shield and apply to the page.
8. Using chalk colour the doilie pink and adhere to the bottom left hand area of the page so it will be partly under your photo but also sitting on top of the 15.5cm half shield.
9. Glue down your 16 x 12cm photo remembering to nudge it slightly under the points of the bunting flags and then glue down the points of the flags.
10. Ink the edges of the 7cm shield and glue down over the bottom left hand corner of the photo.
11. Take a Felt tipped pen and go around the edges of the birds so that they will stand out a little better against your background. (You can leave this step out if you like but your elements will blend into the background and not be very noticeable otherwise.)
12. Take the bird facing right with the long branch of leaves and adhere it to the bottom of your photo leaving the last 3cm not glued down.
13. Take your small tag and stamp with the saying “inspire the soul” and then ink the edges of the tag. Then thread the tag onto the end of the branch and then stick down the branch and the tag.
14. Take the large tag and stamp with the “mothers” stamp. Tie some ribbon through the hole and make a bow. Ink the edges and adhere to the top left hand corner of the photo.
15. Take the bird facing left and stick this to the page overlapping the tag and your photo.
16. Take the chipboard birdcage and ink the edges. Thread ribbon through the bottom and tie in a bow. Tie the heart charm through the bow on the bottom right hand side. Tie another bow in the top of the birdcage and then stick this to the page in the top right hand side of your photo.
17. Take the chipboard bird and colour it using inks and then apply a thin layer of the paint used on the background canvas. Then place a pearl as the bird’s eye and then glue this to your birdcage.
18. Take your Kaiser flowers and arrange them in the bottom left hand corner of your photo.
19. Arrange Kaiser pearls on your page.

 

The Scrapmiser Spin: To save on this project you could make your own flowers out of paper and instead of applying pearls to the page (I used the pale pink Kaiser ones) you could instead use stickles. The birdcage and bird are very cheap as they are cut using a Tim Holz Die on chipboard. Using chipboard off the back of a notebook here would reduce your cost. I got my doillies in a pack of 48 in the kitchen department of the cheaper and chipper store for $2 so I don't think you'd save by using a diecut and cutting your own out of paper. Taking the braid out of the design would drop your price and not detract from the overall design.