I don’t think I’ll ever
stop being amazed at how you can turn a white piece of card or a blank surface
into something completely different, just by using paint and ink and a few
embellishments.
This piece started off as a
blank wooden frame around a small mirror – one of two that I purchased at a
local car boot sale…never underestimate just how useful these places can be for
crafters and artists!
I was inspired by two
things when starting this project – Kay from IndigoBlu and the free Bird Stamp
that came with the June issue of Craft Stamper magazine. Kay did a mirror with
a seaside theme on the Create & Craft TV programme, it was really lovely so
I was inspired to pull one of the mirrors from the ‘to do’ pile and make my
version of it. The Bird Stamp made me think of a garden floral type theme so
that’s where I headed.
Now, as is usual for me, I
forgot to take photographs as I went along. I started out well with the first three pics.....
then got so in-grossed each time I worked on it that the photo thing
went out of the window - that reminder note I’ve pinned above where I sit is sooo
not working!
So with this one you’ve got
more of a written explanation rather than a visual one.
I gave the frame a coat of Black Gesso then some Acrylics in different blues, then I painted a 12x12 piece of Patterned Paper with Acrylic then cut it to size and cut the aperture from the middle to fit the mirror. I
roughened and distressed the edges with a Scissor Blade. I used Texture Paste
through a Branch Stencil then painted over it in toning colours and added some
pink and gold for the ‘blossom’. I then randomly stamped Flowers, Birds,
Foliage and Dragonflies in Black Ink without really taking too much care where
I stamped. I also stamped circles using a Plastic Spray Bottle Top and gold grid
lines using a Plastic Loyalty Card. I randomly added Metal Effect Embossing Powder
and there’s a bit of pink Gilding Wax in some areas too.
The Butterflies were
stamped onto Tissue Paper then coloured with a Promarker, then ModPodged onto
the frame, then a bit of doodling with a White Gel Pen. The bird was stamped onto
White Card, coloured with Distress Ink and given a layer of Glossy Accents. The
Bird Cage is a Recollections Die Cut, which I painted and embossed and gilded,
adding a little Brad to the top.
I painted the paper flowers
with White Gesso and then Luminarte H2os, using them to embellish around the
aperture along with a bit of Lace and some turquoise Gems thrown in for good
measure!
I wanted this to be quite
restrained and distressed so I tried really hard not to be neat and tidy and
not to over embellish. When it was nearly finished I wasn’t really that happy
with it – I felt it was too dull, that it didn’t ‘pop’ enough. I think that’s
down to the colour palette I’ve used so I just continued with it to see how it
ended up rather than adding it to the abandoned pile – I’m sharing because I’m
really quite pleased with the way it turned out.
Onwards now to the next
little project…a handmade colouring book birthday gift for a little girl who’s
got a thing for colouring and drawing and who just loves pencils and paper…she sounds
perfectly normal to me!
