Spring is in the air, wall plaque by Astrid

Hello Calico fans thanks for dropping in. I have a little wall hanger to share with you today:

Let me start today with listing the craft parts I used for this and then I will share a short step by step:

A medium size (20 by 10 cm Dutch Greyboard style 18

Plain ATC wood blank

Butterfly Bramble style 3
Bird on Flowering Vine style 7
Baroque Flourish style 19 (part of only)
Ancestry Font word

I started by covering the grey board with some scrapbook paper in light spring like colours, I distressed the edges a bit and added some subtle background stamping.

Next I painted the ATC in similar, but slightly darker colours using chalk ink and then added some stencilling using Distress inks and a stencil. I also added a tiny scrap of a paper serviette to both the plaque and the ATC for a little more interest.

This was followed by covering parts of both with Decoart Media Crackle Glaze and then adding some Antiquing Creams to bring out the cracks. I forgot to take a picture of that stage, but below you can see a close up how it all came together:

For this project I wanted the cracks to be quite subtle, so as not to detract too much from the beautiful craft parts.

I left the Craft Parts themselves fairly plain too, the only treatment they got was with Decoart Dazzling Metallics in Luminous Gold, just to add a bit of shimmer to the main parts, in this case the bird and flowers.

One of the things that I love about the craft parts is that they come in so many different sizes.. When using larger sizes I love to alter them with paints and crackle mediums etc, but when using smaller sizes, like on this occasion, I think they are better left almost untreated to bring out their delicacy.

Because they are so delicate, they can occasionally break, but I have never found that a problem, as it is easy to use them in parts (like I did here with the corner part) or carefully glue them together again. In fact sometimes I break them on purpose if it suits a particular project I have in mind.

Well that's it for today, - thanks for your visit and fingers crossed that Spring will soon be in full swing here in the Northern Hemisphere. I for one could really do with some warmth and sunshine!

xxx