Steampunk Canvas Tutorial

I had a few requests for a Tutorial on my Steampunk Canvas.  I took a bunch of video, pulled it all together and attempted to upload it here on the blog...no go! Blogger just isn't co-operating. I then tried to upload it to youtube but an hour into uploading it was only at 6%.  Soooo, I'm afraid you're going to have to settle for photos and text.  Feel free to ask any questions here on the blog and I'll answer them as quick as I can.

Supplies:  Canvas (any size), Cheesecloth, Gesso (black and white), Ranger Glue n Seal, Thick Tacky Glue, E6000 glue, Flowers ( I use flowers from I Am Roses, Petaloo and Prima), metal pieces ( I use a lot of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology metals, gears from old watches, springs from old pens and watches, nuts, bolts, the pop tops from soda cans, zipper pulls and any old stuff I find in the garage.) Buttons, laser cut wood shapes, grunge board shapes, and anything else that looks interesting to me.  Dylusion Ink Sprays.

Cover your Canvas with a layer of Glue n Seal and let dry.

Arrange your cheesecloth on your canvas and cover with Glue n Seal, let dry.

Start glueing your items all over the canvas...no rhyme or reason, just have fun glueing it all on...you can even stack items if you like how they look together.

Once you have all of your items glued to the canvas, cover the whole thing in a good solid coat of black gesso.

Once the black gesso is dry, take a scruffy paint brush , dab it into the white gesso and brush it across the canvas..go in all directions brushing lightly in some places and heavy in others.

 Once this layer is dry, cover any photos with paper towel and using Dylusion Ink Sprays have fun adding splashes of color all over the canvas.

If your canvas is a stretched canvas, paint the edges with black gesso.    There is no "right" or "wrong" way to do these canvases and they are very forgiving, for instance: you can always add more layers of stuff at any point, even after adding your sprays. Just be sure and do each of the steps again if you do add more.