Follow Your Dream, canvas by Julie Ann

Hello Everyone! It's great to be at Calico Craft Parts sharing a project with you. November is upon us with its dark nights and chilly mornings! It's sad to bid farewell to the autumn colours and those warm, golden days; but every season has its special beauty and I do love winter's colours too. Today I'm sharing a chunky box canvas (125 mm x 125 mm) with Calico Craft Part details and a winter theme.

The canvas is for a friend who lives in the US. The past few months have been very tough for her. Her family home ended up under six feet of water during Hurricane Harvey and she has been in and out of hospital with Sepsis. She is one of the wisest and kindest people I know and I wanted to create something to cheer her up that she could take back with her when she and her family return to their home.

The first step was to take the top layer of some napkin tissue and stick it carefully to the canvas with a fluid matte medium. I wanted to create the idea of branches faintly visible through wintry mist. I chose the word 'Hope' from the napkin because sometimes it's easy to lose all hope when troubles pile up and the way forward is unclear. My plan was to have that word just about visible through the background layers.

This is the effect I wanted to achieve and I was pleased with the result! I applied layers of different blue acrylics and a touch of pale green and pinky tones, blended with glazing liquid. I then added some white tissue with tiny spangles along the bottom to create the effect of snow.

Now it was time to tell my story with miniature MDF pieces. I laid them out on the dry canvas to explore different compositions. At this point I felt my canvas needed something more.

Owls are special and they symbolise a great deal to my friend and to me. I used one of my own MDF miniature houses and brought it to life with gilded Calico Wings, a tiny Calico oak door and my own art work against a background of Japanese paper. There's a tiny silhouette of an owl from a sheet of Calico birds too.

The finishing touch - some tiny pieces of twig fixed with Heavy Gel Medium and sprinkled with a distress glitter. I created the snow-flakes by dipping a cocktail stick into a puddle of white acrylic and dotting randomly over the canvas. I learned many of these techniques in a class I did a couple of years back with Mary Jane Chadbourne.

With these chunky box canvases, I like to extend the design over the edges too. The path to the house, only just visible in the snow is created from a fragment of tea bag.

I hope you enjoyed our winter walk around the canvas I created for my friend, Christine. If we could open the tiny, snow-covered door I wonder what would lie inside? I imagine a place of warmth, friendship and contentment as the gentle snow falls silently and creates wonder. Have a lovely, creative week, whatever the weather where you are.

Calico Craft Parts used in this Project
Sheet of Mini Owls Wood Bird Shapes
Sheet of Mini Angel Wings Wood Shapes
Sheet of tiny MDF Windows and Doors