Remember The Fallen.....Emerald Creek Dares Challenge

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to visit the John McCrae Birthplace & Memorial Gardens in Guelph, Ontario. Did you know that 2015 is the 100th anniversary of the poem "In Flanders Field"?  I know I didn't. 

Standing in that quiet garden in Guelph and reading the beautiful words of Colonel McCrae's poem was a very sobering reminder about how lucky I am to be living in Canada. I am so very thankful for the sacrifices made by the men and women who fought for our rights & freedoms in wars past and for those who continue to fight today. 

Now on to my project ~~~

I started with an 8x10 canvas that, in a previous life, was going to be another project. That planned project didn't quite turn out how I hoped so I just painted over it with black gesso and tucked it away. 

Never waste a canvas! 

I first started by applying a thin layer of white gesso with my paint brush. I wasn't too neat about it, I just knew I wanted a bit of black left around the edges as a border. Next I applied a dollop of  heavy gesso to the centre of my canvas and used an old hotel key card to spread it out a bit. I then used the same card to make vertical drag lines through the thick gesso and one horizontal line.

Once that was good and dry, I applied an few dabs of Fired Brick & Aged Mahogany Distress paint along the horizontal line, spritzed it with a bit of water then tip my canvas to & from until I got the finished look you see on the right panel. 

I then added so stamping along the bottom edge of the canvas using
Carnation Red Archival Ink from Ranger and these amazing Canada themed stamps from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.
 Canada
We Grow On You
Maple Leaf

 Check out the rest of the Canadiana stamps from Emerald Creek - here.

The tag I made using a #8 black tag from Ranger that I trimmed down after I die cut the word "Remember" from the Friendship Words Block thinlit die set from Sizzix.

I then layered this over a small piece of cream cardstock using foam tape for dimension and some Picket Fence Distress paint along the edges.
The wreath was made using  Holiday Greens Thinlit die set from Sizzix & Tim Holtz. I die cut a bunch out using 3 different shades of green cardstock and gluing these around a base made from jute string. I used my spritzer tool & Peeled Paint Distress Marker to add some detail to the wreath and added a few Pine Cone Charms from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

Before adhering my wreath & tag to my canvas I used my spritzer tool & Hickory Smoke Distress marker to add some small details and stamped a few Maple Leafs with black Archival Ink to the canvas.

Lest We Forget

Don't forget to check out the rest of the projects from the rest of the
Emerald Creek Dares Design Team:

Cathy - Amethyst Dragonfly's Alcove
Karon - Karon's Krafty Korner
Diana - missusgmoments

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today!