Ronald’s Rustic Garden

Hello to all my crafty bloggers. I hope this week finds you all well and full of lots of creativity. For the first part of this week I have been working on a different project as it is going to take some time to make, but I have now got to all the fussy little bits on it, my favourite part, so hope to have on my blog some time in the near future. Whilst crafting this week I was thinking of inspiration to incorporate some of my favourite challenges together. My craft room window faces into my back garden where I love to listen to the birds and watch their antics, especially, my beloved little Robin I call Ronald - you may recall one of my very first posts last year featuring Ronald on a card. My spring flowers are all starting to flower now in the garden. Its so lovely to see the Snowdrops, Daffodils and Crocuses.

Unfortunately, I have no on-going photos of this project with Chris being at work, but lots of nice close ups now its finished. To start this project I got a piece of corrugated cardboard from my ever growing pile. I ripped off part of the top layer in some areas to reveal corrugation and left the top layer in other areas so I could stamp on. I gave it a coat of Gesso applying it with a baby wipe. I then shaded 3 colours of paint over it, finally stamping my seeds stamp with Archival ink and scattering some Frantage over it.

My leaves were die cut out of a grey/green paper and I stamped with a leaves stamp on the top to give added texture with Archival ink.

My flowers were made using CL Shasta Daisy and cream felt. The dies cut through the felt without any problem. I sprayed the felt with a little water and then swiped through some tattered rose distress stain. I then scrunched the felt together to blend the ink in a little more and dried them with my heat gun, finally popping them through a brad. The idea of putting the Wagon Wheel into the centre of my project came again from my garden as I have one sitting outside that has lots of flowers around it in the Summer.

My words and die cut hinge were made using Kraft paper. I stamped with Archival ink and added a little dot stamp with Rusty Hinge Stazon Ink and then heat embossed images.

Ronald was made die cutting the Sizzix Caged Bird with a piece of cardboard. I then placed a retro squares stencil over the top of him and applied Grunge paste. Once dry I added several layers of paint and sanded back in areas. His eye, I made from first putting a dot of Gunmetal Stickles onto the card and when it was dry I place a dot of Glossy Accents on it. Distressed edges with a little Black Soot and rubbed over a little Gilding Wax.

I placed a couple of eyelets onto my work using my Crop-a Dile. Layered all my pieces together and touched with some wax.

Tomorrow, I am off to Craftworld over at Hillington in Glasgow for a craft class using embossing powders, with my Crafty friend. So should be an enjoyable couple of hours in the afternoon.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Take Care, Julie xx

I wish to enter this in:

Cheery Lynn Designs - Flowers Challenge

Frillie and Funkie –Stencils and Texture

Inspiration Journal –Show it with Words

Inspired by Stamping –Flowers

Its All About theVintage – Lace
Fashionable Stamping - Anything Goes Challenge

Products Used :

Cheery Lynn Dies- Pair of Ferns B118, Wagon Wheel B386, Hinges B399, Shasta Daisy B310.

Sizzix Bigz Caged Bird.

PaperArtsy Paints Irish Cream, Tinned Peas, Choc Pudding, Brown Shed and Grunge Paste. Stencil Retro squares ( Sorry don't know the name )

Stamps  - Stampendous Seed words, Paperartsy MN72, Inklycious Leaves, Jofy Plate 11. Tattered Rose Distress Stain, Black Soot Distress ink. Versafine Spanish Moss, Olympia Green and Versamark.

Stampendous Clear detail powder, Aged Green Frantage.

Felt, Pearls, Brads and Lace and garden twine all from stash.