It's really easy to collage over an old canvas and make a completely new piece of art work with just some pretty papers, glue, paint and a fine liner pen.

I made this mixed media canvas with left overs from my Craft What Nots box. You can read full details of the other things I've made from it here and here but sadly these paper craft subscription boxes no longer exist.

The floral papers I had were just SO pretty I thought they would make a lovely flower mixed media collage.

To make a floral mixed media collage canvas you will need:

• A canvas - it can be old or new, plain or already with an image

• White paint - acrylic or emulsion/latex, it doesn’t matter too much

• A mix of pretty floral papers

• Mod Podge

• A waterproof black fineliner pen

• Scissors

• A 2” circle punch - or something small and round to draw around

• A large flower punch and small flower punch or two

• A heart punch

I started with this canvas I bought for 25p in a discount shop a few months ago. The plastic wrap had broken and somehow pen has got all over the corner so they were marked right down. I actually bought several so I guess you may see them again sometime.

If you think this is nicer than my flower collage please keep it to yourself! I started by painting over the bunny, puppy and pen marks. I just used white emulsion (that’s latex paint, the kind you’d use on the walls) as that's what we had. This is what happened:

The pen just showed up more! I ended up giving it 3 coats and then gave up, you'll see in a minute.

Whilst I was waiting for the coats to dry on the canvas I cut out some petals from the floral paper. I just drew a template on scrap paper of a simple petal shape and then cut out 8 petals.

I used my 2" circle punch to make a flower centre too.

To give the petal shape some emphasis I doodled a wiggly border with a black sharpie.

Round once, then round again. The trick is to be decisive and not mess about too much. Practice on scrap paper first if you are not confident.

I also punched out a load of hearts and flowers.

When the canvas was covered-ish and dry I started sticking a few flowers and hearts down with Mod Podge.

I had an idea of where the flower was going to go so I concentrated on the edges, the bits where I knew the petals wouldn't be so much. I also wanted to make sure the pen marks and cute little animals were all covered. (Can you see them still peeking through faintly!)

I wanted some of the flowers to go over the edges onto the sides of the canvas. I found it easier to crease these before applying them as the thicker papers made them a little bit resistant to my idea. They needed plenty of glue and some encouragement.

Feeling a bit inspired by the fact that the white paint had not covered very well, I thought I would create some layers by painting over this lot with just one more layer of white. I was hoping the floral paper would still show through a little, just like the bunny/puppy who were refusing to go quietly. So I roughly painted another layer over the whole thing.

It balanced nicely on a jam jar when painted, so the edges didn't stick to the scrap card I put down.

I everso slightly panicked when it was wet....

but as it dried it faded a bit and all was well.

Next I glued the petals in place using Mod Podge and added some more little flowers, hearts etc.

Some I poked under the petals before they stuck down firmly.

I just kept going until I thought there was enough. apply the Mod Podge below the cut out shapes to use it as glue and then another layer over the top to seal it.

Clearly at this point I decided it wasn't quite fussy, pretty, frilly enough so I added just a little bit more Sharpie doodle.

Just a twirl, swirl, flower, dot or heart here and there as took my fancy.

Lastly the whole thing got another coat of Mod Podge to seal.

Then it was finished - or was it?

I took one of the lovely little plywood butterflies from the Crafty What Nots box and inked it with the blue ink pad.

I coloured the edges with a black felt pen and used the Sharpie to give it a few dotty details.

The idea was that it would add another layer and more texture to the canvas. 

I don't know whether I prefer it with or without. What do you think?

For her room our daughter decided without so I ended up using the butterfly for a different project.

I'll be linking up this project at all these lovely link parties