ABC Friday - Altered Canvas Home Decor

Hey diddle diddle, friends!  It's Carole again, and this time I'm back to share an ABC {Anything But a Card} project with you.  Any of you reading this post regular readers of my personal blog?  If so, then you're probably pretty familiar with the backstory of what I'm about to show you.  If you aren't a regular reader of my blog, WHY NOT?!  You really should be.  It's good for you: mind, body, and soul... ;) Surely you will remedy that sad fact after you finish this post.  Anywho, if you've - for whatever reason - been denied the pleasure of reading my blog, I'll give you the short version of my project's backstory:

Ever since I was a young girl, I've been totally obsessed with this sweater of the late Princess Diana's:

And, for the last several years, I've been re-creating it every so often when I find a cute sheep stamp to play with.  The Di Sweater is without question my favorite stamping leit motif and one I plan to return until I die or become totally sick of it (I don't see the latter ever happening).  I've made it up into probably a dozen cards and for an ATC swap years ago (see this post for examples), but I've never made anything more 'permanent' with Di's Sweater in mind.

Until today...

 I was combing through my stash of alterables, looking for inspiration for an ABC project, when I came across these 5"x7" canvases I had purchased at Michael's a while back:

They're just plain, white canvas panels, very sturdy, about 3/16ths of an inch thick.

I saw them and had a light-bulb moment: I could use one of these to create a Di's Sweater homage that could be hung on the wall of my craft room!  Yippee!  The Poultry In Motion set has two of the most darling sheep in it; I particularly love expression on the front-facing one, so he became my model.  After making some measurements, I determined I could fit a total of fifteen sheep on my canvas (3 rows with 5 sheep each).  And, since I wanted a little extra dimension, I figured I'd pop up his head on foam boosters.  This meant I'd need 30 stamped images.  Here's a start on that figure:

The coloring began.  Here is the star of the show:

And here are the backup sheep, all colored up and ready to be cut out:

After lots of cutting (LOTS of cutting...), they were boostered:

And ready to be joined, then set up in formation.  Here's the finished project:

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE this!  My favorite thing I've made in a long, long time.  Just makes my heart happy!  And these canvases are way cool (and very inexpensive; I'm pretty sure I bought the three that came in the package for under $5.00).  Think about the possibilities: altering these is very much like creating a card, but on a slightly bigger scale.  By mounting what would normally be a card front on top of the canvas, you have instant home decor!  You can use an easel (as photographed) to set it out on a table, you could use 3-M Mounting Strips to adhere it to a wall (and not have to leave nail holes - yay!), or you could adhere ribbon to the back and create a hanger.  You could put a put a panel on the back an write a note to someone, too, making it both a card and home decor.  Wouldn't this be a great gifting idea for a nursery, newlyweds, teacher's gifts, etc?

The sentiment was computer generated, using a free font called 'Shadows Into Light.' Here it is at an angle, to show you the depth and dimension:

And laying flat - you could just pop it into a padded mailer, no problem:

What do you think?  You likey?  Also, I'd love to know: am I the only kook who stamps the same concept over and over, or do you have your own personal stamping leit motif?  Tell me about it!

I'll see you back here tomorrow for Stampbook Saturday! :)