Playtime ......just because I can!

Hello everyone and a very good morning to you.

WARNING : THIS IS A LONG POST SO YOU MIGHT WANT A CUPPA, LOL!

At the end of May I was so happy and proud to be the chosen winner of the fabulous Stamping Sensations Challenge.  I think this was probably the first challenge blog (known then as The Sir Stampalot Challenge) I started to follow when I realised there were such things waaaay back when I started blogging but I've rarely had time to make an entry.  In May 2010 (must be a lucky month for me, lol) I was one of their top three with this Memory Box commission which you can see HERE if you want more pics.  As you can see I loved butterflies back then too and birds still come fairly close as well.

Brenda and her team do a wonderful job bringing fabulous inspiration for the various themes every month and they have some super prizes for the winners too.  My prize was a beautiful set of Courture Mariposa dies and butterflies being just about my favourite images you can imagine how thrilled I was to win.

As their winner I was honoured to be asked to do a guest DT piece for this month's theme and I already had an MDF tag started with an idea that fit the brief so I decided this was going to be it.

 This tag is 10" x 5.5" and I specifically wanted to use as much of my newest stash as I could throw at it, lol!

 

So, I started with a coat of gesso then some DecoArt texture paste through a stencil.  When it was dry I applied the beautiful Distress Oxide inks with Cut n Dry foam.  Next came stencilling with a brush, Fresco Finish Paints and a new stencil by Kay Carley for PaperArtsy.  I then dug out some die cut pieces my friend Sam sent me ages ago to create the foliage at the top and added the red butterfly for a pop of contrast colour.

 

Next I made the little house with my fairly new Tim Holtz die.  I used DecoArt paints given to me for my birthday again by Sam, Seth Apter stamps for PaperArtsy to create texture effects on the roof and Artemio wildflower stamps on the walls.  I then ran the wall pieces through a brick effect embossing folder before I assembled the house.  I used some dinky little mdf pieces from Calico Crafts with crackle glaze on the door and window frame and red paint and glossy accents on the heart.  I also stuck on some pretty flowers from a recent purchase of Tim Holtz Ideology Botanicals.  How cute does it look 😃....I think I want to live there!

Next came the little picket fence which was gessoed and crackle glazed.  A happy accident was that the glaze turned the gesso a bit brown in places which had a lovely aging effect.  I placed the 'sisters' and little dog from TH Ideology Paper Dolls behind the fence then diecut the wildflowers (TH/Sizzix new purchase) and positioned them on my arrangement.

I added some more of the die cuts on the sides of the house to finish it off and here you can see the dimension all the bits and pieces create.   I was originally going to place the house further up the tag but by placing it at the bottom it turned this into a freestanding piece.

I had a whale of a time making this piece because it was all just for fun and I even though I decided to use it for the guest DT spot I had loads of time so there was no pressure of deadlines involved.  I hope you all enjoyed it along with me.

See you all again soon and thanks for visiting.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx