From Ugly to Uglier?

Forewarning, this is a looong post.....

As you can see, these started out as ugly little "canvases" from the dollar store. VERY ugly if you ask me...and if not, oh well!  ;o)  Just as a precaution, I sprayed them with Kilz before I started working on them. Just in case the fugly-arse picture would show through.

I painted them with acrylics; Cadium Red & Alizarian Crimson. I just kinda swiped the color everywhere & let them dry. Unfortunately, these "canvases" weren't very tight, so you see the sagging (which made for a big pain in my arse later on), but what did I expect for a buck, huh??

Next, I took some old wood stain I had lying around & painted it on. Then I took plastic wrap & layed it over the wet stain, making sure there were plenty of wrinkles. 

I let it sit for a minute so I could take a potty break, then came back & pulled off the plastic. Perfect!

I let those sit overnight to "cure"...really, I was just tired of standing out in the garage while I could be watching General Hospital cleaning the house! :::yawn:::

The next day, I went to Michael's to purchase some Texture Magic; basically spackle in a tube with color...did I use a coupon? OF COURSE! 50% off baby!! Ended up something like $3.00.

I already had this stencil that I sell through my Stampin' Up! business. I didn't think I would ever use it, but I have used the heck out of it & it still looks like new! If you'll notice, I started out with all 4 "canvases" together & placed the stencil in the center.

I had to let that dry overnight so I could start filling up the blank spaces. When that was done, I got sidetracked on another project & didn't return to this until a week later...I know I am the only one who does that, right?  ;o)

When I came back to it, it was looking a little too much like mustard swirled on there, so I took an old paintbrush & my stain, then drew over the swirls really sloppy like. I quickly wiped off the stain with an old t-shirt...at least I hope it was an old one and if not, hubster will never know, right? RIGHT??

Here's how they turned out...I want to mount them a little closer & frame them with a nice, chunky frame in the same stain. Maybe that will make them look a leetle better? lol

Here's where the big pain in the arse comes in...see how the "canvas" is concave...when I spread the texture on, it seeped under the stencil & got all mucky, so I tried to scrape off what I could, but that stuff starts drying pretty quickly. Maybe I can redo another one, but we all know it won't match if I do. lol

SO sorry about the crapola lighting, it was dark out & I wanted to get this posted.

I hope you didn't laugh at me too much.  ;o)

Thanks for visiting!

Marjori

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