Two Girls at Play: Ave Maria Altered Canvas Tutorial

I have been toying with the idea of making a tutorial for a couple of months, bear with me…this is my first one! Any suggestions for improvement are welcome!

Here's the completed canvas

Materials Used

Artist’s Loft 6x8 Canvas Board

Gesso

Claudine Helmuth Matte Medium

Glossy Accents

Hot Glue

Ranger Crackle Paint – Clear Rock Candy

Ranger Distress Inks – Wild Honey, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo,

Walnut Stain, Fired Brick

Adirondack Paint Dabbers – Sand, Espresso, Cranberry, Gold

Adirondack Alcohol Inks – Red Pepper

Mary Queen of Heaven Image

Reduced image of sheet music for Schubert’s Ave Maria

Our Daily Bread Designs Stamps – Blessed Virgin Mary, Hail Mary

Prima Romantique Collection 8x8 paper stack

Chipboard flourish

Prima Roses

Garden Gate Rose Petals

Maya Road Heart & Corsage Pins

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Heart Charm

Prima Crown Charm

Step 1 – Prepare the canvas

Apply a medium coat of Gesso over the entire canvas. Don’t worry about getting it smooth – we are going for texture!

Step 2 – Apply base color to canvas

Before the Gesso is dry, apply acrylic paint to the canvas. Since we are going for texture, I used a scruffy brush to “pounce” the paint on. You probably wouldn’t need to cover the entire canvas with paint since most of it will be covered by other things, but I do it this way to get a feel for where the colors should go.

Set the canvas aside for a bit.

Step 3 – Prepare the images & decorative paper elements

I printed the images of Mary and the Schubert piece on regular paper using my HP Photosmart printer because I wanted both pieces to be able to wrinkle and cardstock just doesn’t do that on its own. Mary is printed as a 4x6 and the Schubert is 3x5

Tear the edges of the images – you can make them whatever size you like – Since the image of Mary is the focal point of this piece, I just took off the edges.

Apply Distress Ink in Wild Honey, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain to the images & decorative paper.

I decided that my decorative paper was too bright, so I hit the center with a good coat of Pumice Stone Distress Ink to tone it down. I still wasn’t happy with it, so I crumpled the paper & hit the tops of the creases with walnut stain.

Step 4 – Apply images & decorative paper to canvas.

The Gesso & Acrylic Paint should still be tacky at this point – I just applied the decorative paper directly to the canvas knowing that the gesso & paint would hold it in place. I used Claudine Hellmuth’s Matte Medium to glue the images in place on top.

Set the canvas aside to dry completely. You can speed up the drying time by using a heat tool.

Step 5 – Prepare the embellishments

Cover the chipboard flourish with a page from an old dictionary using Claudine Hellmuth’s Matte Medium – when dry; distress it with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks.

A few drops of Red Pepper Alcohol Ink gives the brass heart charm a great deep red color.

I also hit the crown with some Walnut Stain Distress Ink to take down the shine and give it a more vintage look.

Apply a little Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy to all of the flowers and leaves – let dry.

By this time, your canvas should be dry, if not – use a heat tool to finish the drying process.

Step 6 – Crackle Paint

Once the canvas is completely dry, apply a medium coat of Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy over the entire canvas. Don’t worry about straight brush strokes, the paint will smooth itself out.

Stick the chipboard flourish down to the canvas – positioning it along one side – and cover with crackle paint.

Don’t worry if your papers bubble a little – we want the texture! Set canvas aside to dry. Once the canvas begins to dry and you can see cracks start to form, you can use a heat tool to speed the process up, just be careful not to overheat, as this will cause the crackle paint to bubble.

Step 7 – Distress

Once the canvas is completely dry, apply Distress Ink over the crackle to bring out the cracks.

Just keep adding Distress Ink until you’re happy with how it looks. I used Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain. You can wipe off some of the ink on top to make the cracks show better.

Step 8 – Stamp!

Stamp Ave Maria from Our Daily Bread Designs Blessed Virgin Mary set in the lower left corner and the Hail Mary in the upper right corner. Because you are stamping on top of crackle paint which has a glossy finish, you need to use StazOn or another solvent ink.