First Time as a Guest Designer - Eeeekkkkk!!

Hi All :)

Sorry I haven't been around much lately, I have a LOT on at the moment and art time has unfortunately been put on the back burner.

I was over the moon back in March when my entry was drawn at random to win a voucher for Country View Crafts.  I then was invited by the lovely Chris to be a guest designer for June and almost had a heart attack thinking about the kind of exposure that would give me and my little blog!!  After putting my heart back in my chest I decided to bite the bullet and say yes.  Below is my offering for Country View Crafts June challenge 'Shabby Chic':

 

I have to admit that the theme 'shabby chic' put the fear of god into me! I'm naturally drawn to bright colours or dark grunge so I wasn't exactly sure how this was going to work out.  After spending what feels like an eternity staring at my craft stash I decided I would attempt some altered art and set about trying to reinvent an empty pickle jar.  For some time I've wanted something to stand my long handled paint brushes in so I thought the height of this jar would do the trick.

I started with a couple of coats of thick white gesso and then went over the surface with texture paste through the Tim Holtz harlequin stencil.  As much as I appreciate 'shabby chic' is about white and all things pale I just couldn't work on a project without some colour, it just isn't me so I sponged over the texture paste with Tim Holtz distress paints in Bundled Sage and Broken Glass.  I then carefully cut out a vintage rose image from some paper in my stash and applied it, decoupage style, to the jar. From here on I knew I wanted to bring more 3D elements to the piece and I have already hand picked a gorgeous frame and butterfly from my Dusty Attic collection so I primed these with gesso.  I tried a few different paint techniques and colours on the frame before resorting to good old Tim Holtz distress paint in Picket Fence.  I found the gorgeous graphic of the peacock in a book on painting that I bought dirt cheap from a local store for the sole reason to rip out its beautiful images to use in projects (destroying books is not a regular thing for me but its all in the name of art so I am hopefully forgiven)!  I finished the frame off with a string of pearls to make it even more girly.

I then added paper and resin flowers which I knocked back with gesso.  I also added tiny embroidery beads within the folds of the petals to add a bit of further interest and to give the piece light reflective qualities.  Next I wanted to add a dash of colour to the butterfly so added the tiniest of flecks of Lindy's Magicals in Poinsettia Red Gold before adding more gesso over the top.

 

I finished the neck of the jar by adding vintage lace, pears and ribbon.  I also added a ribbon bow to the front which really tied it all together (excuse the pun!).  I finally just went over any areas which I felt stood out too much with a little more gesso.  

The final piece turned out better than I thought it was going to (at one stage it almost went in the bin!) but I think I have come to realise that shabby chic just isn't my thing and from here on in I am sticking with brights and grunge :D

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:

A sprinkle of imagination - anything goes

Mixed Media World - Vingage

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon.

B

xxx

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