Nature Finds: Use the Landscape as Inspiration

For one evening this summer we zipped up to the mountains for a mini-holiday. Inspired by the landscape, we decided to try a scraping technique for applying paint to create special paper for a landscape piece. This process uses old gift, credit or membership cards which could later lend to the use of a palette or painting knife with oil or acrylic painting.

Materials

Blank canvas
Paint (we used craft grade acrylics)
Old gift, credit or membership cards
Cardstock
Craft tray
Smock
Cloths for clean-up
Scissors
Craft glue

Directions

Don your smock and put your canvas on your craft tray.

Decide what colour you would like your background of your nature scene to be. Put little blobs of your paint on your canvas.

Scrape the paint around with the edge of the card (as seen in the photograph.) The excess will go off the edges of your canvas onto your craft tray and can be wiped up.

Repeat the same process for your cardstock pieces using various, contrasting colours.

Allow your canvas and cardstock pieces to dry overnight.

Cut out shapes that you might like, inspired from nature (trees, mountains etc.). This is only one suggestion- if you have other ideas- go go for it! (For younger children, flip the cardstock pieces over and draw our your shapes first. Arrange them before the final gluing so you can make alterations as seen in the photographs.)

Glue your cut-outs onto your canvas and display it. You may want to write on the inside wood the trip that inspired the piece and the date, so you have a keepsake.