Venturing into mixed media...

First off, this is going to be a long post, so I'll skip the Finnish translations, sorry about that.

Okay, this was a learning process, and I am not totally satisfied with the result, but oh well... My very first try in making a mixed media canvas: 

I'll try to retrace the process, as this has been on my table for over 3 weeks now... I started with a blank 15x15 cm card-like canvas from Søstrene Grene, grounded it with white gesso and then lay down some light modeling paste from Liquitex over a chicken wire stencil template from Panduro.

Sidenote here: I found out why I should pay a little more for my supplies... I got 4 stencils from Panduro with the same price as one "more known brand", but the Panduro stencils are very harshly cut (the chicken wire and brick wall), and I don't get the effect I want with them. You can see what I mean here:

90 degree angles on bricks? Going to have to find some better templates, ie pay more for them.

Anyway, back to business. I glued on some weaved ribbon and twine with Modge Podge matte. I should have used more as it looks a bit lonely now, but still these are the parts I especially love:

The diecut cogs are Tim Holtz Alterations: Sizzix Movers & Shapers - Mini Gears Set and Sizzix Bigz Die - Gadget Gears, cut from a thick cardboard and primed with multiple layers of white gesso and glued down with Glossy Accents. There's a metal brad in the smallest one. I tried adding some self-adhesive aluminium tape to one of the cogs, but the effect didn't come out quite as I wanted.

The metal cog accents are done by layering self-adhesive aluminium tape over a piece of thin cardboard and then running it through my Big Shot with an embossing folder from Cuddlebug called Clockworks. Then I painted it with black acrylic paint, let it dry a bit and then rubbed off the extra paint with a paper towel. I then fuzzycut around the larger cogs to get smaller pieces, which I then adhered with the light modeling paste.

When all this was dried, I painted everything except the faux metal panels with white gesso and then sprayed the canvas with ink sprays. I made a custom Distress Ink spray by mixing Antique Linen and Tattered Rose reinkers in a mini-mister and used that as the base. Then I continued with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in sand and some spritzes of Dylusions Melted Chocolate. The cogs are painted with Distress Paint dabber in Antique Bronze and with some Inka Gold in copper. I also used the DP dabber around the edges of the canvas. Afterwards I highlighted some places with the white gesso again. Finally I added the Dymo-label.

There were quite some "Oh crap"-moments during the way, but white gesso does save quite a lot :)

Lastly I want to share some YouTube-channels I get inspiration and great tutorials from:
Luvleescrappin's channel (mixed media canvases)
Sari Hänninen's channel (steampunk ideas and the faux metal technique)