Wednesday 14 April 2010

Shabby Squares

Good day everyone. It's now a glorious late afternoon and evening and the sun is streaming into my craft room. We had a great day yesterday at Chessington and there were 23 of us altogether. A real family day out which the children (big and little) thoroughly enjoyed. Again we had glorious sunshine and blue skies all day which was wonderful.

On to my next creation. I was inspired mainly by two challenge blogs for this one, both Pollycraft, to use pink, brown and either green or yellow (as you can see I chose green) and the Shabby Tea Room which has a lovely photo of patchwork and the theme is squares. I was also inspired to try new things by watching some of the demonstrations at Alexandra Palace at the weekend. This is the result.
I started by making the frame and used a mix of PVA and water to make layers sandwiched by lime acrylic paint and heat blasted the top layer of paint to get this cracked, weatherboard effect. Then I dabbed the TH acrylic paint over the top in raspberry, heat blasted it again and then rubbed most of it off so that the cracks are filled with the pink colour. I made the layer underneath this by using all squares to make it look like a montage of patterns and colours.The layer beneath this I used the Spellbinders butterfly impressabilities on white card, edged it with DI vintage photo and sprayed it with coffee shop Glimmer Mist. Lastly I mounted it on white card edged with a MS punch and onto green card. The flower I made myself by cutting out about 7 different sized squares and folding them to cut petal shapes, then spraying them with tea rose Glimmer Mist, scrunching them up to get the shabby look and layering them up and securing them with a pearl brad. During this process I found that the colours in my box I use for spraying came through on the edges of the petals and gave it a real vintage look. This was a happy experiment that worked better than expected. My butterfly was one I printed off and cut out and then covered it with crackle accents, this has given it a nice effect. The button flower was another experiment using coloured string and sparkly thread and I added lace and a pin with beads on it. I finished off with a brown ribbon, a brown flourish and a pearl trail from the butterfly. With the vintage image in the centre I am quite pleased with the overall effect. Another shabby chic vintage card to add to the collection.


I love reading the comments that come with entering challenges, so I always look to see what other challenges I can enter with my cards. I have quite a list this time. There are some fabulous challenge blogs out there that give real great ideas. Thanks evereyone for providing such inspiration and support.

Enjoy the rest of the week.
LOL Bxxx

Challenge List
Pollycraft Challenge - Pink, brown and green or yellow
The Shabby Tea Room Week 5 - It's hip to be square
Totally Papercrafts Challenge 11 - Distressing
Our Creative Corner - Bows
Allsorts Challenge 47 - Petals and Pearls
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle week 35 - Birthdays
Totally Gorjuss Challenge 25 - Texture
Corrosive Challenges 59 - Texture
One stitch at a time - Torn, distressed or shabby
Sophisti-cat Challenge 29 - So distressing
The Cuttlebug Spot - Bling
Practical Scrappers - Glitter and bling  and blog hop
Tuesday Taggers - Happy Birthday
My Time to Craft Challenge 87 - Pretty Pearls
Creative Card Crew Challenge 48 - Birthday
Flutterby Wednesday # 105 - Butterfly