Things with Wings ........

Happy Wednesday ......

This week is flying by.  Touch wood, fingers crossed and all that ........ everything is going according to plan, but I probably shouldn't have said that.

It's time to launch another challenge over on the Happy Little Stampers Blog .... this time it's the turn of the Mixed Media Challenge.  We've got a great theme for you for April ..... it's all about ..... WINGS

Birds. butterflies, dragonflies, moths.  Angels or fairies or anything else you can come up with that's got wings.

Now I love butterflies and I do like to make home decor projects so ...... I've got a little altered frame for you, to hopefully inspire you to join in the fun.  Don't forget, there's prizes up for grabs .... but more about that later.

This frame has been lying around the old craft room for a while.  I found it in one of my tidying sessions ...... and it looked a whole lot different than it does now.

I took the whole thing to pieces, ripped out what was in there and started again! It's amazing what a sanding block and a coat of gesso can cover up!!

The frame itself  was decorated using texture paste through various stencils, and then the whole thing was given a couple of coats of black gesso

Once this was dry I then dry brushed over the top with a silver metallic paint, to bring out all the detail of the texture paste

I covered the backboard of the frame with some old book pages and then stamped the beautiful butterfly from Tim Holtz over the top.

A touch of colour was added using Distress Inks and a little water, being careful not to wet the book pages too much

A bit of dimension was needed so ...... I covered a piece of Clearly for Art Modelling Film with another book page and then stamped the butterfly onto it.  Coloured it using the Distress Inks again and then fussy cut around it.

If you've never used Clearly for Art before, it's a bit like a cross between thick acetate and shrink plastic .... only it doesn't shrink!  When you heat it you can mold and shape it whilst it's warm and then as it cools it will hold the shape.  The good thing is, if you don't like the result .... heat it again and re-shape it ..... cool or what!!

I added a little heat to my butterfly, just to raise the wings a little.

A simple saying finishes everything off nicely ......

To make the words stand out against the text of the book page, I painted over where I wanted to stamp with a little bit of watered down, white gesso, stamped the words over the top and then added just a touch of colour.

Well ..... there you have it ..... and it really was simple to make.  

Are you ready to enter the challenge, or would you like some more inspiration?  

Pop over to the Happy Little Stampers Blog .... there you'll find some fabulous projects from the rest of the Design Team, along with all the details of this months challenge.

As always the challenge is sponsored by the HLS store

And because April is HLS's birthday month the prizes are ......

a $30 gift certificate for the challenge winner (nice!)

and then

a $10 gift certificate for each of our favourites (yeah!)

Get those entries in .... you never know it could be you!

Happy Birthday Happy Little Stampers!!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.  

I'm off to grab a glass of something chilled, put my feet up and relax with Dr McDreamy.  Yes I'm watching Grey's Anatomy again!

Cheerio until next time

xx