Guest Post ~ Kathy from Artsy Canvas Girl

Not too long ago, I met Kathy from Artsy Canvas Girl. We met through one of the blog hops we were both participating in. I remember visiting her blog, heading over to her etsy and thinking to myself. "I love this concept! It is such a neat idea and well done, but it isn't something I can afford right now." Well, I commented on her blog as I like to do when I follow someone back - I am not one for "follow me, I will follow you" comments, I like to make meaningful comments, and reach out to the bloggers I find interesting. If they reach back, often time their blogs end up being one of my favorites to check in on from time to time. Kathy was no exception. I had told her how much I loved her stuff and how I one day hoped to be able to have something like that done for my home.

Kathy emailed me back and suggested we try an idea she had been thinking of. She offered to edit one of my pictures in the awesome way that she does, and then allow me to print it through the canvas people. I was super excited. I agreed in exchange (as long as I liked it) to write about it here. And let me tell you - I LOVED it. Her eye for seeing the little things in such a big picture. Her ability to add something extra to a photo.

I know she expected me to send her a family picture, but I had just gotten back from my family trip to Minnesota. I had taken some beautiful pictures (albeit very amateur) of scenery and flowers and such. Little known fact, I like to take pictures of flowers. I do it everywhere I go. And I love the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote "Earth Laughs in Flowers." So I sent her my latest flower picture. I am no photographer, and I have no idea how to photo-shop, so when I saw Kathy had done a post on her blog about my picture, I asked her to send it to me, so I could post it here. I figured it would be the best way to show off her talent. I love what she did to my picture. It really made it into a work of art. When I get the canvas back, I will share more about my experience with Canvas People, and show you how the final product turned out. I really hope you will check out Kathy's work. Who knows - maybe she could give you a one of a kind special memory too!






So a few weeks back, I met the sweetest gal, Emily from Family and Life in Las Vegas. We met through our blogs during a blog hop I participated in. From time to time, I love spending some time seeing what others are doing... and thinking... and sharing! It's really good for the soul and the creativity process. Anyway, Emily stopped by my blog because I had stopped by hers. She had made a comment on my "tutus and trunks post"(still one of my favorite canvases I've created -- beautiful Baby Kendall captured by talented photographer, Vikki from Vikki Dinh Photography). Emily made a comment that the picture was beautiful and that she always wanted to have a picture done on canvas..."maybe one day!" she said. I thought, "There's no time like the present!" when I remembered a posting I saw on Songberries blog about a free 8x10 canvas offer by CanvasPeople. So I told her about this offer I noticed on Songberries blog. I was happy to offer her my services to make this happen. A few weeks later, she sent me the following picture... It was the sweetest picture of flowers! This is my first "nature" project for a client. I was expecting a family picture or the kiddo picture...but instead I got a picture of flowers! How fun!

Original SOOC

Emily's vision was to create a "subway art"-styled canvas with this photo. She wanted words like rejoice, celebrate, love, joy, etc. She also wanted to incorporate a special quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Earth laughs in flowers." I LOVED that quote! So I began working on this really fun project. I always create a few different versions in an effort to match the various personal tastes that varies from person to person. Here are some of the samples I created for this project.

First, I enhanced the color of the photo because I wanted it to have a really full-of-color feel to match the power of the words she requested. Then I selected a color scheme by pulling colors from the photo and began selecting fonts that expressed the words visually to me. Then I added some pretty little sun spots and a soft milky frame to give it a little mystical feel and added some little daisy embellishments in the top corners. I liked the results...

Color-enhanced photo

Then, I wanted to play a little more with the photo. I just started using a trial version of a product called Topaz which has some really cool features to enhance photos. I'd been dying to try it out so I played with their product called Clean Adjust. It allowed me to stylize the photo...

Stylized Photo

Here is a close up of the difference between the color enhanced photo compared to the stylized photo...

Close up of the color-enhanced photo

Closeup of stylized photo

The stylized just added a little more texture and line to the photo. I personally really love this effect for this particular photo.

Then I did another version, a little more of a crisp clean look (knowing that not everyone likes the embellished artsy look.)

Crisp clean version

I sent these versions to Emily to get her feedback. It's a good time in the process to get a better idea of what the client likes (and don't like) and fine tune to the finish product. Emily asked if I could create a lace-like frame. I wanted to see how a closer-in crop of the picture would look like so I created this...

Lace frame with a closer view of the flowers

In the end, Emily chose this version of the photo for the final printing of the canvas... The stylized photo including the really cool quote with the milky frame, sunspots and sweet daisy embellishments. The gallery wrap sides of the canvas will be a dark sky blue that matches to the darker portion of the sky. She sounded thrilled and I gotta tell you that is the best part of what I do!

Emily's pick

Here's my favorite version...pretty much same as Emily's pick but with a closer-in view of the flower!

My pick

Emily promised me a picture of the final canvas when she receives it back from CanvasPeople. I will post it here...I'm hoping it turns out great!!!

What's your favorite version?
Love and blessings,

Kathy - Artsy Canvas Girl
@ArtsyCanvasGirl
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Stay tuned to see how the Canvas turned out!