The Soulful Heart Mini Canvas Project

Sometimes pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones can be challenging, uncomfortable, and at times, even debilitating — especially when it comes to creating art.

The process of creating art is so personal, and those who don’t create art may not understand. But I’ve learned that I can’t let that stop me from growing as an artist. Even though I hold each piece I create near and dear to my heart, I also know that I have to release what I make into the universe to share and, hopefully, to inspire others.

Pushing the limits is what we as artists are meant to do, one brushstroke at a time.

The Soulful Heart Mini Canvas Project Directions

Add a light layer of gesso over the entire surface of the canvas.

Cut and attach a strip of paper to the right side of the canvas using gel medium.

Tear a strip of corrugated cardboard, and glue it across the bottom of the canvas with gel medium.

Add a little more gel medium above the corrugated cardboard, and the sprinkle with a dusting of mica flakes. Use your finger to spread and separate the mica flakes across the canvas so they don’t clump together.

Edge the canvas with brown acrylic paint, using the mini ink blending tool. Add a bit of brown paint across the top of the canvas, too. If the paint looks too dark, simply dab your finger with gesso and add it to the canvas to soften the brown paint.

To add a bit of color, I used the Peacock Feather Blue Distress Ink Mini and just edged it across the top and side over my brown paint.

Attach a rustic heart with a good heaping of gel medium.

Lightly hammer decorative tacks onto each corner, wrap with rustic wire, and then hammer all the way into the canvas to hold in place.

Select words from Chitchat Words Stickers, lightly age with brown acrylic paint, and stick to the canvas with gel medium.

Outline the words with a pencil or charcoal pencil.

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