Rusty Mixed Media Floral Canvas with Lindy's

I'm honored to hostess this month's challenge at A Vintage Journey where our theme is Rusty and Crusty.  "Many of us love rust and enjoy looking for new ways to get that authentic look of crusty peeling metal. For this challenge include some rust in your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk project, whether it be the real thing, a faux technique or just a rust colour on your project."

I truly cannot remember what I was making this canvas for, but some time ago started this rusty panel in hopes of making a very "Seth Apter" style of project with some of his die cuts and stamps.  I started with a burlap 8x8 canvas and painted it with Viva Rusty Paper, then added Prima rust paste here and there.  I watered down Iced Spruce Distress Oxide and added it to give some chalkiness and darkness here and there.  Next I embossed Seth's Dot Matrix stamp in an old Cloisonne embossing powder (which had a greenish hint).  I added some flecks of watered down Vintage Photo DOX.  To me it was a dark abyss!  So there it sat for several months.  Then I had the idea to create a canvas with a ripple and flowers emerging, so I went back to work...

I'm sorry I forgot to do a process photo here, but basically across the middle I Mod Podged a piece of tissue paper, which I had scrunched up into a 1" band, across the middle of the canvas.  I dried it with a hair dryer on cool and added DecoArt crackle paste above and below the tissue.  Then I added watery gesso above and below the crackle and spritzed it with water at the edges so it would sort of dissolve outward and not leave a stark line. 

I used my heat gun when the crackle was mostly dried to dry the gesso wash.  The coolest thing happened, the embossed Dot Matrix embossing powder sort of rose through the gesso as it heated!  It gave so much gorgeous variation to the mass of white.  I brushed on the dark brown Prima rust paste along the tissue and hated it.  I trued my best to wipe it off and some of it settled in the cracks, which was a good effect.  Then I sprayed it with Lindy's Cocoa Bean Copper heavily along the tissue.  Oh my gosh!!!  What a gorgeous spray!  I followed with Tears on my Pillow Tangerine and Sandra Dee Sepia over the crackle and gessoed portions, spraying until the color was sufficiently random.  :)

I chose three rusty toned Prima flowers to emerge from this "crack" and glued them over a bed of basket filler atop an embossed doily die and filigree metal charms from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. 

For the doily, I first sprayed it with the Cocoa Bean Copper spray completely, then embossed in Burnt Copper Leaves and then again in Seth's new Chunky Rust Baked Texture.  Oh my gosh, I could have eaten this doily up like rusty candy!!!  Ha!

I added some "water drops" below  my flowers.

Then spent a while rummaging through an old hymnal for this beautiful snippet, which was the most favorite song in all the world of my dear late friend Florence.  Oh how special this is to me!  And very fitting for these emerging flowers...

We would love to see YOUR Rusty and Crusty creations in our link up this month, so hop on over to A Vintage Journey for inspiration overload and then get to work!  :)

I'm sharing with:

Lindy's Stamp Gang April Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Monday: A Trio of Something

Mixed Media World: Anything Mixed Media Goes w/Twist Spring

Rhedd's Creative Spirit: Anything Mixed Media Goes

Altered Eclectics: Anything Altered/MM Goes