Bird Cage Canvas

There are some fabulous design team projects over at Altered Eclectics for their May Challenge...I am very proud to be on their design team...
My project this month is a canvas...which I recycled...it was one that I had started quite some time ago and I put it to one side because I just lost my mojo after painting it pink!

This is a 6" x 6" box canvas...love the box style as they keep their shape and don't warp when you apply lots of paint.

As I mentioned earlier, this canvas was previously pink and not a nice shade of pink either...so I gave it several coats of white gesso.

I then painted all over with Docrafts pistachio acrylic paint and wiped it back with a baby wipe ( due to the light,the photo shows the pistachio as light turquiose! )....once dry I randomly stamped some script ( Crafty Individuals ) and post marks in black archival ink.

Using white acrylic paint and an old bank card I created some lines.

I decided then to add texture and using a Tim Holtz stencil and crackle texture paste...once that was dry I daubed yellow acrylic paint over some areas of the canvas and wiped some of it back with a baby wipe.

Then it was set aside to dry...well it was dinner time and I had to cook,lol...

I found a bird cage in my stash,no idea how long I have had that...I gave it 2 coats of black acrylic paint and sprayed it twice with Crafters Companion spray & seal to give it a shine.

The bird, again in my stash, I do know  I had bought a set at a craft show a long time ago from Anna Marie Designs.
Using the Pistachio paint I daubed some on the bird and dried it using my heat tool...then I stamped a swirl on it and gave it a black bead for it's eye...this too was treated to spray & seal.

I used the spray and seal as the glossy mod podge tends to leave brush strokes which I didn't want especially on the bird.

I stained  a small piece of lace yellow and glued that to the canvas...on the top edge of that I added a narrow strip of pale green cotton lace.

Adding the birdcage,bird,flowers and some wire coils.

The sentiment ( Artistic Outpost  form their Outpost set of stamps ) was stamped on some card I coloured yellow, that was then added to the canvas.

To finish I used my finger and rubbed some white acrylic paint to the edges of the canvas,again wiping back slightly with a baby wipe.

The above image shows the actual colours of the canvas...apologies for the lighting on the other photos

Altered Eclectics Challenge can be found....HERE