I hope you all had a lovely weekend, especially my buddies who were lucky enough to go to the Happy Stampers North West show at Port Sunlight. I love that show and the venue but it's a loooooong drive from here so means an overnighter which I couldn't run to this year sadly but from tweets and blog posts I know they all had a fabulous time. Instead my OH and I met our Son and grandaughter Alexa and went to see the illuminations and fireworks at Matlock Bath. Luckily after a bad start to the day the weather decided to be kind and was dry and not really cold (although OH reckoned it was) but there is a lot of hanging about and queueing and even we got bored let alone Alexa, lol! Never mind we did have a nice meal, the fireworks were good and it was lovely to spend time with them.
Last month saw a change in the way the blog challenge works over on the PaperArtsy blog and instead of weekly it is now monthly. You would think that would give me more time to make an entry but it didn't seem to work that way for me. I got bogged down with all the wonderful inspiration from Guest Designers, Signature Designers, Guest Bloggers, etc., and right at the last minute the lovely Lin Brown shared a project HERE which involved metal work (at which she is simply The Best) which I really wanted to have a go at. I made a start but knew I had no chance of finishing it in time so it got left on my workdesk all last week. I really wanted to finish it though and so I spent today doing just that.
I had a framed canvas like the one Lin used but mine was much bigger but then I found a fab box with a canvas to set into the lid. I'm pretty sure I bought this from PaperArtsy at one of the shows and although it's still 2 cm bigger than Lin's square that just gave me scope to change it a little.
I removed the clasp and hinges before I started working on the box.
This is the metal adhered to the canvas square but before adding Fresco paint and Treasure Gold
Painted, buffed off and then the beginnings of adding Treasure Gold. At this point I thought what a bl.....y mess!
Finished with the TG but not polished.
Polished off, corners added and attached into the lid recess. The Treasure Gold colours I used were Sapphire, Onyxite and Royal Amethyst.
I toyed with the idea of adding stencilled Grunge Paste or lots more stamping round the sides but decided against it as I liked the whole focus being on the metalwork, so I just stamped one of Lin's quotes and highlighted with some Treasure Gold.
I lined the top and bottom with pieces of PaperArtsy's Chatsworth paper over which I'd added a wash of Fresco to tone it in with the Baltic Blue and Squid Ink Frescos I'd used. I don't yet have Lin's new limited edition paints for the gorgeous colour she used but hope to rectify that in 2 weeks time at the StampMagic show ;-).
I'm really pleased with how this turned out in the end especially as at one point I thought the metal looked awful, lol! Must try harder this month to get a project finished for the October challenge. I love tonight's canvas from Gillian and my buddy Helen did a lovely journal page the other night......however, I don't do journalling, lol! Could always do a tag instead perhaps!
Whatever, have a great week everyone and see you again soon........ hopefully with a shorter gap between posts than the last one, lol!
Hugs
Lesley Xx
