Not defeat. Just Plan B !

Not defeat. Just Plan B !

Hi there,
Well, that’s day one of the week almost done.
Did you enjoy your Monday?
Mine was hectic, but productive.
Lots of plate spinning; no casualities – yet!
So let’s chillax and do a little canvas.
That’s what I fancy.
A little canvas.
Nothing too big. Not today.
I think I’ll go with a 6″ x 6″.
Good, manageable size.
First things first.
Let’s brayer a layer of Concrete 
or Cheesecake Fresco Acrylic Chalk Paint.
Couldn’t find my Cheesecake…
Walked the brayer through South Pacific and across the canvas too.

Then walked over the South Pacific to China.
And the question on everybody’s lips was,
“What for? You completely covered up the South Pacific”
So there you go.
Now you know that you can use opaque paint 
to completely cover up anything you want. 

Not that I wanted!
So I just started walking various colours back and forth across the little canvas,

until I got what I wanted….

 Stamped my geese onto a piece of Tissue paper, 
using black Archival.
I have to tell you at this stage,
I have NO IDEA what I’m doing,
but I remember Sam Crowe once telling me to stamp on tissue,
tear it out and then glue it to the canvas.
So here goes…
Coloured them in from behind with my Spectrum Noir pencils.
So far so good…
Decided to paint a layer of white paint over the back, 
to make the colours ping.
Somewhere, in the recesses of my mind, 
there was something about painting the back white…

Aha!
So that is much better! The Geese really stand out!
I think we had best cut them out though.
Can’t see how this white paint is going to disappear into the canvas, can you?

God bless good scissors….
It’s a lot harder than you think, you know, cutting out tissue paper!

So I’ve stamped the rest of the family directly onto the canvas using the black Archival.
Great job.
But actually, I knew if it went wrong, 
all I had to do was paint over them !
Time to glue the geese into place…
So I lay the geese on a piece of copy paper,
front facing down,
 and, with a paint brush, gently coated the back with Mod Podge.
This is where it all went Peektong!
When I tried to lift them off the copy paper,
the tissue paper had gone decidedly limp.

So limp, in fact, that their feet fell off!
Noooo!!!!!
Quickly! quickly! I thought, 
when I realised that Mod Podge dries fast-faster-fastest! 
Get the bodies in place and sort the feet out afterwards!

But. Twas not to be.
Sometimes you just have to accept defeat.
Or in this case, not de feet.

But then, having decided I was no way doing a feet graft,
I had a moment of Clarity!
Meadow flowers. They are standing in the meadow flowers!
More flowery paint colours and a paper stump.
Dib dib dib.
Dob dob dob.

All sorts of fresh colours for flowers.
Couldn’t find my Zesty Zing or my Yellow Submarine …
In fact, haven’t seen them since that Sam Crowe 
raided my Paint Stash at the Open Days….
But Guacamole, Haystack and London Bus worked a treat.

Went back in over some of the larger flowers and added light centres too…

Mission accomplished!
A flowery meadow,
conveniently camouflaging the Mod Podge botch,
in which our two friends were so irreparably mutilated.

Canvas mounted on the next size up.

Happy with that. 
Happy to be done, too!

Have enjoyed the canvas adventure, up here in my den.
Nothing like walking the brayer and find solutions.
I was within a minute of putting wellies on them.
Much prefer the flowers!!

Now where’s that cup of tea darling Dave brought me up just now?

I’ve had an idea.
I think I’ll do canvas blogs all week.
(Apart from You Tube Tuesday, which is already set in stone).
Don’t buy any canvases today. 
Wait until Wednesday.
That’ll give me enough time to get a Half-Price Sale organised!
Let’s do this thing!!!
love and hugs,

80 thoughts on “Not defeat. Just Plan B !

  1. Fantastic! I think the geese are fab and they look quite happy walking ankle deep in the flowers.
    I have been spinning plates too today so tonight I have decided to have a bit of a groovi evening and finish off cards that we started with Maria on Saturday!
    Looking forward to seeing you soon. xxx

  2. Your post always make me smile 🙂 love reading them! Already looking forward to the next brayered wonder! Love those very much too! 🙂 your footless geese look great in the field of flowers 😉 xx

    1. Not crafted yet, any suggestions, something to calm me down that I can do with really blurry eyes? But did get a few things ticked off, makes a change!!! 🙂 How was your day? xx

    2. Hmmmm, how about a bit of zentangle? I know its new but it will calm your thoughts. Here's what you need, a piece of paper and a pen. I usually use black but any colour will do. Separate your page into four sections. In section 1 draw lines across and down and colour every other square on each row making a chess board design. In section 2 draw little triangles and put a dot into each one. Section 3 draw straight lines across the section and then draw spots on the lines ( like the lines on the new geese stamps Barbara used today). Section 4 draw circles with smaller circles inside.
      Try one section at a time, I bet one section makes you feel calmer. Do as many as you feel able. Let me know how you get on. Xx

    3. Zentangle, serves me right for asking!!!! 😉 Ok, I give in, I'll follow your instructions and give it a go:-). Doing something so abstract, with no end purpose /use, my head aint going to like, guess I'll just need to tell it to shut up for a bit, eh!!! I can do the colouring in using my CHEAP pencils ;-), won't matter if I go over all the lines, it's not going to be used for anything, other than practising for our cowboy boots. Or is colour colouring in not allowed? I'm definitely going to do it, after I've done my dishes, aye at the coo's tail again tonight!!! Is it meant to be equal spacing and filling the whole of the sections with no spaces in between? Or is it meant to be random? Told you I'm a total numpty, head just doesn't grasp it!!! xx

    4. I'd say do whatever makes you happy! If you want to colour in, go for it. I think zentangle looks best when you fill the whole area personally, but anything goes, and "mistakes" are part of the design (that's the Zen part I think). Enjoy!

    5. Fill each section with the design, there will be some space between for instance the triangles should not touch each other in section 2 but they don't have to be the same size, same with the circles in section 4. I would do a thicker line to separate the sections so the patterns are clear. I don't add extra colour to mine I just use the one pen, so if I use black the areas I colour in will be black. If I use a blue pen the areas I colour will be blue etc. Concentrate on the lines and shapes.
      I have a notebook I use to practice a design, no other purpose for it other than to keep my doodling in one place. The end result or pupose is the feeling of calmness it will provide so keep breathing deep and don't think of anything else. Just concentrate on the pen and the lines.
      Hmmmm a sneaky way to get you practicing for the cowboy boots? Me sneaky…………..never even crossed my mind 😉 xx

    6. Ha, ha Donna ;-). Ok I'll stick with one pen for this. I can keep it in case I want to colour in something another time, there, I've found a purpose for doing it, that should keep my Asperger's head quiet!!! you must be soo organised, you seem to have a separate notebook for everything. Me, my craft seems to be the exception to my absolute need for organisation and tidy!!! Any stuff I draw, practise, jot down to try another time – on scrap pieces of paper, often the back of the Tesco shopping receipts!!! And there's pieces /wee piles of these papers here and there and not just confined to the craft room either!!!! xx

      Thanks Lucinda, guess you're saying no rules, and I like the bit mistakes are part of the design, like Barbara's feetless geese!!! 🙂 xx

    7. I just LOVE notebooks so buy them when I find a pretty one! Thinking to myself "someday I'll find a use for this new notebook" . I always have to go in to Paperchase and stroke the notebooks! Xx

    8. Ohhhh great another notebook stroker I confess I have a draw full of notebooks that I intend to do something with one day but for now there safe…..glad your sounding a wee bit back to yourself now ……take care….xx Dot

  3. I love the geese, and to me they look like they are wading in the shallows of a pond with the waterlillies about to bloom!

    Hope you enjoyed that cuppa

    Much love

    Kim

    xxxx

  4. Really clever and who would have known that the geese were footloose if you hadn't told us! I've also been inspired by Sam Crowe's designs today and was playing with my gelli plate and my new sale tree stamps – really cool design and now I have 6 lovely original finished cards – well, not quite finished as I need to sign them once the glue is dry! Susan x

  5. Fabulous canvas Barbara. Field of flowers, pond with waterlilies as Kim says…. Beautiful. Ooh and a half price sale for Wednesday…. So generous. Hugs enjoy your cup of tea. XxxxX

  6. Hi Barbara. I have had internet problems so have been missing your great blog but I have now caught up. So many gorgeous projects, I love the Groovi stuff in particular.
    Love today's piece, it's always good to see an answer to mistakes too. Thank you for sharing all that you do with us : ) Take care xx

  7. Waiting for Wednesday!!! Glad you didn't admit 'de..feet' :/ Love the end result, sometimes the best creations come from the odd mishap!! hehehe. loved it. must try some canvas's

  8. Hi Barbara.
    Love the footless geese. Love the flower meadow. Love it all. It was a very happy accident. I do enjoy your step by steps. Yes please let's have a canvas week and as I have used nearly all of mine a special offer would be good.
    Hugs from Chris X

  9. Hi Barbara, a lovely canvas, thanks for sharing. That tissue paper trick is great, must add it to my list of first things to try, getting to be rather a long list of first things….!!! It read like you were taking us on a world tour with all these paint names!!! At first I was thinking you would make them have a paddle, but the meadow idea is great, must remember that one as I'm good at losing feet off things too!!!!

    I've had a bit of a productive day too, obviously not at your level. I got some long waiting filing done, found the info I was needing to for a asap important thing, did some online orders, including my Groovi one, and tried to work out how I'm going to order my food shopping now they've increased to minimum basket to too much for a weekly shop. Food shopping one, not ideal as it means my fruit and veg will be even less fresh but at least I'll be able to have food to eat! Hopefully Nicola et al will come up with a better solution, they didn't give much notice. Online orders, well that's something else I keep putting off and the lists were building up, the clincher, Daisy's food is getting quite low and I discovered the place I was buying it don't have it now, so thought I had better buy the last two bags from the only place left that sells it!!! It's the only one she eats, it's a good quality one for a reasonable price so I've no idea why the shops stop selling it, I'm always having to chase round looking for the next place to buy it from!!!! So I thought I'd best just catch up on the shopping lists while I was at it! Shopping online, I hate it, I have so many fears and issues it's a nightmare. Actually doing the order is ok if it's a website I know and the product I know too. Obviously I have to buy everything online, and it's a nightmare for me when I'm trying to work out which thing to choose and from where so I get the right thing. Then it's a constant fear is the order going to come, is it going to be damaged, missing, is it going to be what I am expecting, when will it come, will it come when I'm out the back during my garden visit, the delivery guy knocking on my door and having to go through that…. I get in a right state. That's why I hate doing orders, but I've no choice, I've no way of going to any shops to do it the easy safest way for me. So after all that I'm totally wound up and got a sore head from all the thinking and stress! And there's still one order to go, but I'm not doing any more today!

    And, in the middle of all that the phone rings. More fear, Nicola is on holiday, no one else phones me! You'll never guess who phoned me, your Chloe Barbara! Nicola had told me to add a club query to the to-do list she wanted. I was just going to ignore it but then thought maybe it'll cause a problem in the future so I said to Nicola about it. But I thought I could maybe do it by email to save Nicola phoning to ask, no point using a precious few minutes of her time doing something if it can be sorted by me when there's so much that can't. Anyway I emailed the other day trying to explain, as best I could what I was querying, not being sure if it was just me being a numpty as I'm fairly new in the club. She thought it would be easier to explain on the phone, a lovely lady, and yes she did explain it easily so now I understand. So, very scary for me, but a positive phone experience instead of all the horrible negative ones there's been for me :-). Diane, I blame you, because you were asking yesterday if I was phoning in my Groovi order!!!!!

    So some boxes ticked, but now, after all that, I need to somehow calm down, I'll have a wee think if there's any easy craft thing I can take to bed to do, Mindfulness craft, but it can't be colouring in yet because of my extra blurry eyes. Hope you've got your washing machine head turned off after your canvas creation, love Brenda xx

    1. Hi Brenda oh I am so sorry, yes I take full responsibility, but do you know I'm really proud of you. Doesn't Barbara employ the nicest people, I'm glad Chloe was able to help you out and whoopee you've ordered your Groovi too, well done you. Nicola will be pleased with you too when she comes back from holiday. What a pain about the minimum order, they don't think about people on their own do they these supermarkets and poor a Daisy and her cat food too. My cousin gas a parcel box outside her front door and they just put them in there. She had it because the dogs used to get to their post before they did and they lost so many things! Not good when they ran a business from home! The dogs really enjoyed eating cheques, but not bills!
      Hope you gave a good nights sleep
      Love Diane xxx

    2. Thank you everyone 🙂 🙂
      3 orders Donna 😉 1 to go but I'm leaving that until Wednesday in case it's a quick dispatch one, so it can't come during my garden visit on Thursday.
      That parcel box sounds good, must find out about them. the stuff in it could wait until I have someone here. but then I might just worry more not being able to check if everything in it is ok and what I'm expecting. I'll mention it to Nicola, thanks
      Donna's got me trying out my first zentangling, we'll see if that sends me to sleep or keeps me up all night!!!!
      What lovely people you are 🙂 xx

  10. This is so beautiful, I've been so tempted by the canvasses, a sale may be my tipping point!

    I'm sitting waiting for news from the hospital as my dad's had an op, getting nervous as we've not heard yet, so lovely to read the blog and all the lovely comments to keep my mind elsewhere. Worrying won't help him!

    I have to admit I'd quite like to see the geese in wellies – the image appeals to me!

    1. Thank you Sheila, just heard he's back on the ward and spoken to my mum, he's coherent but sleepy. Phew! So we can all get a good night's sleep now.

  11. Beautiful canvas it wonderful how you make a mistake into a stunning piece of art beautiful flowers cute geese with no feet no one would no you had made a error so good to know our Barbara makes mistakes my first canvas wasn't a good one so I know now I can paint over it that's for another day crafting hugs xxx

    1. Hi Sheila my first canvas was a charity shop find that I painted over lets just say it wasn't a masterpiece but the pennies went to good cause…hope your getting a wee bit better…take care..xx

  12. Hi Barb,
    I did something similar when I wanted to stamp two Easter bunnies looking at each other. I stamped one on paper and the second one on tissue, cut them out and clued it with double sided adhesive sheets together… A lot of work but it worked ;-))
    Your geese are great.
    Rolf xxx

  13. Think your mod podgy bodge was very successful. Beautiful result. The geese look very chilled with their feet buried in the meadow flowers. Bit like that Cadbury's flake advert. Wish I could join them xx

  14. Hi Barbara
    Oh you do make me laugh! Love the brayering of colours, those names make me smile, and then the lovely geese. Great recovery – you could say a real feet! Love the meadow flowers, it's ad if you gad a plan all along. Hope you didn't dip your paint brush in your cup of tea!
    Take care loved Diane xxx

  15. Oh to be like you and make an excellent artpiece with the mistake covered up!! You are utterly, utterly, amazing and innovative. Just messed 3 pieces of parchment!!! Roll on Crowborough – no work – no stress – just Clarity Crafting – um – half packed already.
    Best wishes
    Anne (Reading)

  16. These are great, Barbara, so great! What a lovely design. Thank you. I'm waiting till Wednesday and definitely making an order.
    I must tell you this, though, my husband is a builder to trade. Does lots of painting and decorating too. I was sitting working as my desk an hour ago (freelance editing, working late) with all the detritus of last night's card-making around me and a few of the Clarity stencil brushes still out (I know, I know, I'm so untidy!). And he says, with real accusation in his voice: "Hey! Is that my brush?"
    "Nope," I said, "it's mine. M.I.N.E. Look, it even says Clarity on it. It's mine. Hands off!"
    He wasn't convinced. He picked it up, felt the bristles, nodded, pretended to paint something on the door. Nodded again.
    "This is a good brush," he said. "Really good. I like that." He checked the label. looked crestfallen.
    "It's still mine," I said. "Bugger off and get your own brushes!" So there you have it — a professional building engineer, very impressed. I can happily recommend these to anyone thinking of buying them.
    But I've hidden them now — and, believe me, in this craft room, he'll never find them! 🙂 Thanks again for all the inspiration. K x

  17. Hi Barb,
    I love this little canvas. Really like the geese waddling through the flower meadow . That was quick thinking! Knowing me, i would probably tried to glue the feet on and make a proper mess of it! Looking forward to the week of canvasses (& the half price sale). Love Alison xx

  18. Footloose and fancy free, your too honest. I would have kept quiet about that one, looks as if it was meant to be . Very inspiring, I would like to try that technique, although the tissue paper looks a bit tricky.
    Linda

  19. Hi Barb, what a beautiful little canvas, love the field of flowers and the footless geese, so bright and cheerful. My little canvases are out on my desk staring up at me in their pristine whiteness, time to do something with them. Hope you enjoyed the cuppa. Let's see what happens Wedneday, will I? won't I? Can I? Can't I? And looking forward to the canvas blogs for inspiration. Take care. Bx

  20. I love the geese without De Feet, and the flower meadow is just perfect. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your canvases this week and might "borrow" a few of your ideas if you don't mind Barbara 🙂 xxx

  21. The flowery meadow is lovely and sets off the geese a treat. I shall have to take note and never give up. Thanks for a brilliant tutorial more so because it didn't go right.

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