It's a Boy!

We just found out this afternoon that we are having a baby boy! We are thrilled. The entire family decided that Mr. Moonie needed a partner and luckily, he's getting one!

Getting an ultrasound is such a surreal experience. I know that I'm pregnant and I know that there is a baby there, but to actually see his heart beating and his legs kicking is amazing. Somehow, it cements the experience for me. Unfortunately, the room was too small to accommodate all the sweeties so Big Man had to sit outside in the waiting room with them until the very end. Tragic.

And now, here is the canvas that I made for Nancy, my realtor. I gave it to her Friday and she giggled when she opened it so I think that she liked it. I used red and purple because those colors are in her home. The entire piece is done on a 6x6 canvas that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

Here's a close-up of the sky. The wrinkled look is quite simple to achieve.


And the grass is actually a paper towel that I painted: another interesting, yet simple technique.

In case you are interested in how I made this, let me outline the basic steps and ingredients.

Ingredients:
6x6 canvas (or another size of your choice)
paper towels
tissue paper
gesso
acrylic paint
thin pen
printed words
vintage paper with text
picture of someone's head
fabric
PVA glue (book binding glue: dries clear)
some flowers and brads (mine are Prima, KI Memories and MM)
scrap of white cardstock

1. Coat the canvas with gesso. (Gesso allows you to paint over just about any surface including plastic.) Allow to dry.

2. Drizzle PVA glue on canvas where you want your wrinkles. Take a wet (with water) paintbrush and spread the glue. (I do this instead of mixing my glue with water. It seems to work just fine and I don't have a gluey water leftover cup.) Place your tissue paper on the glue making sure that it is a bit wrinkly. Smoosh it down so that there aren't any air bubbles and don't worry about small tears, they add to the wrinkled look. By the way, you can use any color tissue paper. I happened to have some bright yellow on hand. Allow to dry overnight.

3. Coat the tissue paper area with gesso. Allow to dry.

4. Dribble small drips of blue paint on the tissue paper. Take a wet brush (I usually have my brush soaking in a cup of water.) Make sure that it isn't dripping, however and spread the paint around the tissue paper area. When you feel that it is about right, take a paper towel and dab in random areas to remove some of the paint. Allow to dry overnight.

5. Meanwhile, cut out your photo and figure out where your shirt should be. If you'd like sketch a bit on a scrap of paper to get the size right. Glue text to your shirt and doodle. Sketch out arms and adhere to shirt.

6. Take a rectangle of fabric and hem it on all 4 sides (or 3 if you have a fold). Baste on one of the long sides and gather. Adhere to torso and add ric rack as a belt.

7. Cut a wave out of a regular paper towel, place it on a waterproof surface. I use a craft sheet. Wet it down so it is moist with your paintbrush. Dribble on a bit of green paint and wet again with your paintbrush moving the paint around. Blot with a dry paper towel to remove excess color, if desired. Allow to dry.

8. Adhere paper towel to canvas using PVA glue. Adhere poppet. Adhere words. Adhere flowers with brads already attached to them. Doodle around edges if desired.

9. Voila! Fini!