Sharing happiness ..........

I love this quote by John Harrigan and was keen to use it on this little gothic arch (and I just about managed to fit it in!) 

Today we start a brand new challenge at A Vintage Journey and this month our theme is

Use a Quote

The wonderfully talented Jenny Marples is our host this month and she is urging us to take a quote! any quote! whether it be on a stamp, a sticker, handwritten or sourced from the internet. Just make it the focal point of your vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk project.

Our sponsors this month are That's Crafty and very generously they have provided all the Creative Guides with one of their MDF boards to play with for the challenge project. 

This little gothic arch and stand is very cute and measures only 5.5 inches high, so it was challenging to fit my quote in!

I first coated the MDF with gesso and added some Tim Holtz Texture Paste through a couple of stencils and then filled in a few gaps with DecoArt Crackle Paint. I wanted to use PaperArtsy Infusions which always work so much better with a base coat of Fresco Paint, so everything got a coat of Chalk before spritzing here and there with Olive Infusions.

Finally some Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges along with a little stamping finished it off.

Despite the snowy weather as I write this our garden is full of sunshine in the form of daffodils (yes much later here in the north!) and I had these little yellow flowers left over from a workshop I taught last year so decided to use them as a cascade down the arch.

I needed some contrast for the light yellow flowers so painted a larger flower with the Olive Infusions and added a little torn book paper which had also been coloured with Ochre Infusions.

I do love these little beads, but they do rather go everywhere and not necessarily where you want them to go!

As you can see from these last two photographs, the MDF board is very thick and will take a punishing of gesso, paints and anything else you choose to throw at it! 

I have to come clean at this point and say my first attempt was using the Ochre Infusions, but I decided I didn't like it so covered it all over with gesso and started again!  I had even started sticking things down. So all credit to the MDF board - it's tough!

I do hope you will hop on over to the AVJ blog for our challenge post HERE and see what the other Creative Guides have created with their MDF pieces. Absolute stunners all of them!

As usual  you will find all the details of the challenge for this month there as well. I do hope you find time to join in.

As always, thank you for joining me.

Jennie x

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