Hello, blog visitors, happy Friday.  I finished this little shrine-type piece late last night, so I’m going to enter it into this week’s PaperArtsy challenge.  It is inspired by Michelle’s gorgeous wooden house on the PaperArtsy blog, ( part one & part two) & Jo’s beautiful Butterfly Arch on her Shabby Dandelion blog.  I’ve had a few of these wooden pieces for years, so I decided it was about time I did something with one  of them.

I thought I took a lot more photos than I did & wish these were a lot better than they are.

After covering the wood with a few washes of Snowflake FF paints, I just started putting on layers of colours, with a dry brush & with my fingers.  I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but I tried to be patient & not precise.  I used the following Fresco Finish paints:

• Mermaid
• Beach Hut
• Nougat
• Pumpkin Soup
• Brown Shed
• Eggplant
• French Roast

Here’s the back.  You can still see the colours, but I think they blend fairly well.  I stamped the image on to Crackly tissue, coloured both on the reverse with Frescos & used Satin Glaze to adhere them to them to the wood, with more Satin Glaze on top to seal.  Then I added lots of Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold & a wash of Pumpkin Soup.  There had to be some metal, so I cut the legs off the screw brads & attached them with Glossy Accents.

This is the front.  I wanted it to look worn & shabby.  Recently, I read a biography of Richard III, (rather prescient, given the exciting events in Leicester earlier this week) & it got me thinking about medieval iconography & the miniature prayer shrines that people would carry with them when they travelled.

I can’t remember how many layers of paint went on this, because I just kept going until I decided it was ok.  Then I added the copper Ferro paste through my mini cubist stencil & Aquamarine Treasure Gold.

Next it was time to work on the metal card.  I’d put the crackle glaze on it the night before & painted a thickish layer of Mermaid on top before I started the rest of the project, to get the crackles going, also leaving it to dry thoroughly.  I got some great crackles, some of which ended up being covered by the translucent paints – Brown Shed, French Roast & Eggplant – but there’s still quite a few.  Again, I just kept going, blending over & over with my fingers, knocking back with a baby wipe & tissues & building up layers of colour.

When I’d added the images & sealed everything, I used a white pen on the eyes & the detail under the face, then decided that it all looked a bit flat, so on went the gold liquid pearls & the black adhesive pearls.  After that I left it alone, before I did something to ruin the whole thing.

I quite like this.  I’m glad I took my time with it & didn’t stick rigidly to how I wanted it to be.

Okay, I have waffled on enough.  Thanks again to Michelle & Jo for their inspiration this week, I’m chuffed that I finally used one of the pieces of wood that have been living in my craft stash for goodness knows how long!

Until next time,

Love & light.