Creating My Own Canvas...

I am trying to do something purely creative for an hour or two every morning this summer... yesterday it was simply sketching flowers in my sketchbook, this morning I printed on a cream colored piece of cotton canvas I bought last weekend for this exact purpose!

Ok, so everybody needs to have a cat invade their space when they are working... if you have/have ever had cats you understand... its their way of saying, " Hey, look at me! " 

Ok, so inspiration for this whole thing comes from Alisa Burke, she is an amazing, very inspirational artist who freely shares her creative ideas to inspire others! She has so many cool ideas! Sometimes I will see her do something, like this plastic bag printmaking and think OMG how did that never occur to me to try?!?  Then I realize it's because 10 months out of the year my mind is on overload from school, lesson plans, SGO's, assessments, data.... you know... all the stuff that SUCKS ALL the creative and physical energy out of you! ( if you are a teacher you know what I mean... )

I started by painting some fabric paint onto a plastic bag( Ziploc , not the grocery kind...) and placed it randomly onto my canvas and pressed...

Once I started to get into it I became more random in my placement...

Now its starting to resemble Monet's Waterlilies to me...

Time to break out the random kitchen items...

I really wanted some bubble wrap but do you think I could find any? I had my daughter searching through the house... 

Ended up with a piece of Lego instead...

... it made the dots I was wanting but I would still like some bubble wrap...

The kitchen table is not just for eating...

...ready for something contrasting...

I tried a couple of ways to paint onto the bag but was not loving it... I ended up drawing on the bag with the paint bottle and then gently printing the sketch into the fabric...  to much and it over squished... found I could quick blot it up with a paper towel and all was good...

over squished... blotted it up and the background color came through in places, looked way better...

... added some white flowers too...

... even when I'm not at school my hands are a mess...

I so LOVE how this turned out!!!

Now the whole piece is drying out on my front porch in the breeze...

Time to go clean up my mess...

I'm going to be using this with some awesome fabrics and recycled denim I think for a bag...

I'll play later...

Mrs."C"  :)