Christmas canvas painting in home deco style

Here's a home-decoration style multi-media painting with 3D effects for a very fashionable Christmas decoration!

Materials

• a deep frame-mounted canvas (9.4x11.8 inches, 0.7 inches deep)
• a transparent ball in 2 halves, with a diameter of 2.4 inches
• a 12 inch long piece of ribbon (in silver-gray lace from Julien Faure or similar outlets)
• a piece of white felt (at least 2.4 x 2.4 inches) and the same sized piece in light gray felt
• texture effect/modeling paste, blue, white and silver metallic effect acrylic paints, crackle medium, glitter gel-glue

let's start with a little geometery. We have to carefully set down a series of squares and lines. Use one half of the ball to draw on the outlines (in pencil):  1.4 inches from the left-hand side and 1.6 inches from the top of the canvas (ensure that the string from which the ball will be hung is drawn on as a completely straight line). Do the same in the other 3 corners of the canvas. For the balls in the lower left and upper right-hand corners, draw a square with 3.5 inch sides all around the ball (the center point of each side must be 0.6 inches from the edge of the ball). Draw on a vertical line 5.3 inches from the right-hand edge, another line 0.4 inches parallel to the previous line, another 0.2 inches from this line, another line 0.8 inches from the last line.

Using a flat paintbrush (0.2 inches wide), spread on the texture effect/modeling paste (we're using "snow effect" paste) in the central left column right up to and covering the pencil lines.
Don't forget the top and bottom sides of the frame.

Mix a very small amount of blue with a much larger amount of white paint in order to get a sky blue color. Using this light-colored mixture, paint the right-hand part of the canvas, applying a little paint using a soft paintbrush, spreading the paint by rubbing it with a clean cloth, so that the white of the canvas itself is visible in certain places. Paint the squares (but not the circle shapes inside the squares) in silver metallic effect paint for the square in the bottom left-hand corner and in a deep blue color for the other square. Paint the circle in the bottom right-hand corner and the narrow central strip using this same shade of blue. Paint the right-hand column with the same shade of silver metallic paint.

The crackle medium is applied using a soft brush, once the 1st coat of paint is dry,  to the metallic silver and blue squares. Wait about ten minutes for the medium to start drying. Repaint the squares using a contrasting color  (for example, a slightly deeper shade of sky blue compared with that used for the left-hand side of the canvas, if you've any left, you can simply mix in a little more blue). It's important to apply the paint in one brushstroke, do not bring the paintbrush back over an area that has already been painted (otherwise you will cover up the cracks that are in the process of forming). Leave to dry. The cracks will start to appear.

While the paint is drying, prepare the transparent ball (see how to make a Christmas ball with rhinestones : remember, only some of the ball is decorated with arabesques and rhinestones, the rest is decorated with silver glitter).

Now get the felt circles ready: draw the circles using half a ball set on a piece of felt as a template. Draw round the ball with a fine-tipped felt-tip pen and cut out the outline, removing any traces of felt-tip pen at the same time.

Draw arabesques like those on the rhinestone-decorated ball onto the white felt circle. Replace the rhinestones with drops of transparent blue glitter glue.

The same glitter glue will be used on the circle of gray felt to draw a band around the middle of the ball and loops at the top, just like in the actual ball being depicted.

Now all you have to do is glue on the various parts of the design that make up our Christmas home decoration painting: the white felt circle in the lower left-hand square, the circle of gray felt in the upper right-hand square, the "transparent ball with rhinestones" part in the upper left-hand corner, the other ball in the last corner, on the blue circle, thus creating a pretty effect thanks to the transparency of the ball. Next you must glue (with fabric adhesive or all purpose glue) the ribbon in gray lace onto the right-hand strip (painted in metallic silver). You may play with a trompe-l'oeil effect by painting on the imaginary string with which to hang the ball using a fine-tipped paintbrush and dark gray paint and then painting the real string used for hanging the two halves of the ball in the same way...