Home to Roost

Hello, this little chap has been roosting in my workshop together with his friends from 7gypsies Conservatory papers awaiting assembly into a class project. Well, I finally taught the workshop last Wednesday and I thought I'd let you have a peek before he and his friends come home with me to roost in a box frame in my study.

The base and rectangles are all just cream mountboard covered with layers of the Conservatory papers and overstamped with Prima background stamps - the chicken wire stamp is a long time favourite, so useful! I added some Vintage Photo ink around all the edges, Ideaology tickets, Grungeboard flourishes, shrink plastic eggs in a frayed twine nest and twigs from the garden outside the store to finish. If I get a chance this weekend I will finish the butterfly version from the same papers which will hang alongside this one.

Thanks for visiting xx

Laced with Grace Canvas

Well, this project started with what was supposed to be a quick play with the Eco Green's lush paints in Birch and Clamshell, some of their Spackle and some text stamps but, once the canvas was painted, textured with some stamping into the Spackle, painted some more and finally lightly swiped with a little Viva Inca Gold (in a sort of greenish gold) over the textured area, I'd lost interest.

Then a few days later I spotted these pretty butterflies on the signature paper from Glitz Design's Laced with Grace so a few were cut out and I tore, distressed and inked another sheet from the range before I remembered said abandoned canvas. I wanted to stitch around the paper and onto the ric rac but couldn't figure how to get my new, especially bought to stitch paper, mini sewing machine to work. So Tina, who teaches a couple of workshops each month for Snazzys came to the rescue and did it for me, then paper was glued to the canvas. 

Next, being a very lazy crafter, I was looking for an easy way to create metal flowers a la the wonderful Lin Brown so stuck metal to grungepaper, die cut with Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, and embossed each flower individually in various embossing folders. I painted the metal with Ranger's Pearl Paint Dabber and lightly dabbed on some of their Alcohol Inks in Butterscotch and Lettuce. I layered the metal flowers with a couple cut from cardstock and with Mini Rosettes made from Scrim with the Tim Holtz die, all inked with Forest Moss Distress Stain. A bit of shaping, few gems added, layers stuck together with good old Glossy Accents and they were done.

Tim Holtz Flourishes from Grungeboard inked with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress Stains, a ticket and hand, stamped on the same background paper, with the matching Laced with Grace stamps in Versafine Smokey Grey and some hand cut letters, layered on darker cardstock, overstamped with the background stamp in the same grey ink and the project was finished - or was it? Confession time. This project has been sat across from my desk since Artstamps Scotland in June. I didn't know if it was finished then and still don't now, but everyone who comes into the workshop asks me how I made the flowers so there you go.

Thanks for visiting and putting up with my rattling xx