A Sort of Serenity ........

Not just another year, but another set of wonderful challenges! And in this post I'll be giving you two for one!  

First off at Anything But A Card this month this wonderful picture is our inspiration.  I have decided to use the colours and a strong vertical theme for my project, trying to retain the feeling of serenity which the picture portrays.

And at Our Creative Corner Claudia has challenged us to use a former shopping sin!  How great is that!  So here is my confession:

Every time I travel through Aberdeen, I always seem to end up in Hobbycraft as it is just over the road from the ferry. I never feel it has much in the way of inky things I need but I do get carried away with buying things to alter ....... and I never get around to using them as they need PAINT which I don't really do. 

But as you all know by now (!) I recently bought some Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Chalk Paint having been so inspired by the fabulous projects created by  Alison at Words and Pictures(aka Butterfly). 

So having practised on tags here is my first major attempt at using the paints and using a paper mache hanging from my bulging basket.

I stuck some various elements on the bare board - some Crafty Individual stems and punched butterflies and leaves and gave everything a coat of gesso.  I then applied Sky Fresco Paint with a piece of foam and combined a little Snowflake and Mocha Mousse here and there.  

I did little more dry brushing with the Snowflake and then stamped a bit of texture with a Tim Holtz Mixed Media stamp (one of my Christmas pressies) but this time I used Beach Hut which is transparent.

I didn't dare use stamps direct so I stamped some text and my sentiment on tissue paper and used Claudine Hellmuth Mixed Medium to layer them over everything.(I just love the way you can poke bits in here and there around the leaves.)

And that was it really! apart from a bit of sanding here and there and around the edges of the hanging.  I did add some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges just to give it a more aged look.

I then decorated with the usual suspects!

I do love the way the paints give such a lovely texture when they dry - in fact they looked far better when dry. However, despite using Snowflake they are a bit darker than I planned hence the "sort of" serenity.

I am certainly very taken with Fresco Paints and now need to look for some more interesting colours. Thank you Alison for the wonderful inspiration and all those fabulous how to's you give us.

I do hope you will join us at Anything But A Card for our challenge this month.  Click the link HERE to see last week's wonderful inspirational pieces from some of the DT.

And do pop over to Our Creative Corner to have a look at the wonderful pieces the DT have made with their shopping sins.  They did make me smile! And it made me feel soooo much better.






Thank you for visiting and I hope you are having a great weekend x