Through the Porthole by Jennie

Hello and welcome to a "through the porthole" post!

By the time you read this I should be coming to the end of my cruising holiday on the west coast of Scotland in our yacht Mrs Muir. And hopefully there have been some fabulous views through the portholes .... blue skies, hot sunshine, calm seas ....... But just in case I thought I would make my own porthole using some fabulous Calico Craft Parts and some amazing DecoArt rusting techniques.

I should add here in case my husband reads this that NONE of our portholes are rusty ......... !

So here was the start of my porthole - covered first in DecoArt Texture Sand Paste and then painted with a mix of DecoArt Paynes Grey. I added Tinting Base for the inner to get a lighter colour and on its own for the outer.

Next came a splodging of DecoArt Quinacridone Gold - I say splodging as you need to allow some of the under grey coat to show through.  The little hinge at the side I painted in gold paint and then added a little Turquoise Hue paint to look like a Verdigris stain.

I spent a very lovely evening watching Andy Skinner's rusting videos and I do recommend having a look at them as they are extremely good in getting you started on rusting techniques. They are short - 5 minutes or so - so hold your attention! well mine anyway! I will post a link to the series of videos at the bottom of the post.

I used a different technique on the wheels, anchor and cog wheels, this time trying to get a more Verdigris hue. The eagle eyed of you will notice that the smaller wheel has been painted on the underside. Although it didn't really matter, I did turn it over and paint it again!

And then I layered my embellishments onto the porthole, using some metal stars and a great vintage photograph.

Even this little plaque got a rusty make-over!

I really love this rusting technique it looks so authentic!

It is the skipper's (aka my husband's) birthday while we are at sea and birthday cards are not that easy to keep or hang on board. But I think this would look good hanging from one of the inside portholes. Or for a masculine card the porthole would fit perfectly on a 6" x 6" card.

Safe travels wherever you may be heading and thank you for joining me.

Happy crafting!

Jennie x

Live the Dream

Calico Craft Parts Used:

Ships Porthole Large

Ships Wheel Style 2 (Small and Medium)

Mini Wood Cogs Style 2

Rectangle Mini Plaques

Mini Nautical Motifs Shape 2

Andy Skinner Rusting Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzrOY_WZW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWe6a-MZ8hY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxPGY-8fdwo