DIY Rust Pastes on a Nautical Steampunk Canvas with Preeti D.

Hi friends! Preeti Datta (Dutt Preety) here, I hope you are having a great week.

For today’s Lindy’s Blog post, I’ve created a Nautical Steampunk Canvas, titled, Wander.  I wanted to make something that combines some of my favorite themes – rusty, vintage, textured, masculine, steampunk, grungy and sea related.

I’ve used lots of Lindy’s gorgeous products including the Starburst Squirts, Magical Shakers, Embossing Powders and Sprays. Canvases are always fun to create and make for great gifts and home decor pieces. In this canvas, I have used Lindy’s awesome products to create my own DIY Rust Pastes. 

Basic Process

Step 1: Start by adhering Tissue Wrap to a 6 by 8 inch canvas board using Matte Gel.

Step 2: Apply clear gesso on the canvas to prepare it for mixed media work. Spray Lindy’s Sidewalk Chalk Flat Spray (this is my favorite white spray) to create a whitish base to work on and to push the text on the tissue wrap into the background.

Step 3: Mix 3D matte gel with Lindy’s gorgeous Magical Shakers-Antique Bronze and Cowabunga Copper to create your own DIY colored texture paste. Apply it through a stencil onto the canvas using a palette knife. (Tip: I usually do all such mixing on pieces of acetate from packaging, which acts as my make-shift palette, so that once the project is over, these can be thrown & it saves time and effort on cleaning up).

Step 4: Now comes the fun part, adding colors. For the first layer of blues, use a brush to add Lindy’s beautiful Starburst Squirt- Banff Blue and Blue Hawaiian Blue Shimmer Spray and spray with water to create movement. Dry this before moving onto the next layer.

Step 5: Introduce teal hues on the canvas by adding Lindy’s stunning Tibetan Poppy Teal Shimmer Spray and Starburst Squirt-Loonie Toonie Teal. These teals are absolutely amazing and probably my most used colours. I seriously love them! Since the colours are water reactive, all of the layers mix with each other every time a new layer is added atop, therefore, dry between each layer and choose colours from the same color family so that they blend nicely.

Step 6: Next, we add Lindy’s beautiful C’est la vie Cerise Flat Spray, more of the Tibetan Poppy Teal Shimmer Spray and then to blend everything together, Lindy’s Sidewalk Chalk Flat Spray. To reclaim some of the white space on the canvas, wipe those areas with a wet wipe.

Step 7: Prepare elements for layering by choosing apt chipboard and mdf pieces (suiting the chosen theme) and then heat emboss them with Lindy’s beautiful Embossing Powders- Oktoberfest Orange EP, Bratwurst Brown EP and Black Forest Black EP. (In this step, we don’t need to be too precise with full coverage of these elements by the embossing powders because later on, we will add DIY rust pastes to parts of these, so that some of the shine from the heat embossing shows through along with the rusty look from the pastes.)

Step 8: To make this cute & quirky steampunk octopus chipboard look special & bring out it’s details, first spray it with Lindy’s Blazing Black Flat Spray (so that all those tiny details remain visible) and then using an Embossing Pen, draw on the chipboard (so some areas remain black) and then heat emboss it with Lindy’s beautiful Oktoberfest Orange EP. (this is such a potent orange, great to add a touch of vibrancy to projects).

Step 9: Next, darken the edges of the canvas with brown archival ink using a blending tool and foam and then adhere the embossed elements and gauze to the canvas using matte gel.

Step 10: Now, we create our own DIY rust pastes. Mix soft matte gel with texture sand and then divide the paste into 3. Colorise the pastes using Lindy’s gorgeous Magical Shakers- Grab a Guy Gold Magical Shaker (to get yellow rust paste), Bratwurst Brown Magical Shaker (to get brown rust paste), Oktoberfest Orange Magical Shaker and Cowabunga Copper Magical Shaker (to get red rust paste). To make the pastes thinner (so they are easier to apply otherwise thick gel medium dries quite fast) and add more color to them, spray the pastes with Lindy’s beautiful sprays- Red Hot Poker Orange Shimmer Spray and Incandescent Copper Vintage Spray. Now use these pastes to color the metal charms as well as all the elements adhered to the canvas in the previous step.

Step 11: Next, to highlight the raised areas (including the texture created by the DIY rust pastes), wait for everything to completely dry. Then mix Soft Matte Gel with Lindy’s beautiful Magical Shakers- Grab a Guy Gold and Antique Gold to create 2 pastes. Using the dry brush technique (use a flat, soft & dry brush and have very little paste on the brush) highlight the raised and textured surfaces. This adds a subtle and beautiful shine. To amp it up & create more shine, apply a few metallic waxes to highlight some of the areas as well. Also, distress the edges of a quote chip and a paper doll using archival ink & adhere them to the canvas using matte gel.

Step 12: Now, the finishing touches. To add more texture, interest and shine, add art stones (mini and regular) and glass glitter to the composition using soft matte gel, create ink splatter using a thin brush and Lindy’s sprays- Blazing Black Flat Spray, Sidewalk Chalk Flat Spray and Tibetan Poppy Teal Shimmer Spray and finally darken the edges of the canvas with Jet Black Archival Ink.

Here are some photos of the finished Nautical Steampunk Canvas…

Lindy’s Products

• Starburst Squirts- Banff Blue and Loonie Toonie Teal
• Embossing Powders-Oktoberfest Orange EP, Bratwurst Brown EP and Black Forest Black EP
• Sprays- Sidewalk Chalk Flat Spray, Blazing Black Flat Spray, Red Hot Poker Orange Shimmer Spray, Incandescent Copper Vintage Spray, Blue Hawaiian Blue Shimmer Spray, Tibetan Poppy Teal Shimmer Spray and C’est la vie Cerise Flat Spray
• Magical Shakers- Antique Bronze, Cowabunga Copper, Oktoberfest Orange, Bratwurst Brown, Grab a Guy Gold and Antique Gold Magical Shaker.

Other Products 

• Tim Holtz Paper Dolls, Quote Chips, Tissue Wrap, Gauze, Prima’s Soft Matte Gel, 3D Matte Gel, Clear Gesso, Waxes, Glass Glitter, Mini & Regular Art Stones, 13 arts Stencil, Ranger’s Archival Inkpads and Emboss it Pen, Versamark watermark Inkpad, metal charms, Little Birdie Texture Sand, Creative Embellishment Chipboards & MDF elements.

Thanks a lot for your precious time.
Stay Blessed!
Preeti