Thistle Flower Tag - by Claudia

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by!
I hope you have been enjoying a great summer so far!

Today's project spotlights one of my favourite flowers - the thistle.

I love its shape and the beautiful contrast of the delicate and tender blossom against the thorny leaves and stem. I love that thistles seem to thrive in hot, dry and meagre places. And thistles remind me of a lot of lovely hikes and warm, happy, sunny days spent outdoors.

Calico Craft Parts used:

- Thistle Flower MDF Wood Shape - Style 54
- MDF Tag Shape - Round Top
- Sheet of Mini MDF Label Holders Wood Shapes
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Butterflies - Style 6


I especially enjoyed creating the tag's background as I just love creating gorgeous crackle. I used DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "heritage" and put a thin coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood on top once the paint had dried.

In the meantime the thistle wood shape was primed with a dry brushed layer of DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "timeless". I love the Chalky Finish paints as primers as these provide great tooth for paints to adhere to and you can also gently sand them if you want an especially smooth and even surface to paint on.

Once the Weathered Wood had dried to the touch (which took about five minutes - maybe less - as it is already quite warm over here in Vienna and I had only applied a very thin coat), I took a soft flat brush and gently spread a thin layer of DecoArt Americana "Light Buttermilk" acrylic paint. The crackling process starts almost immediately once you add the paint on top, so you should avoid going over the same area twice with your brush.

As I had applied the Weathered Wood quite thinly, I got small, delicate cracks (which was what I had been aiming for). I used walnut stain Distress Crayon to softly darken the tag's edges.

The thistle flower wood shape and the butterfly were painted using DecoArt media fluid acrylics Dioxazine Purple, Sap Green, Green Gold, Titan Buff, Titanium White and Carbon Black alongside DecoArt Americana acrylic paints Lavender and Mulberry.

I sprinkled diluted DecoArt Americana Golden Straw and media fluid acrylics Burnt Umber and Titanium White onto the tag to create more depth and let that dry before I glued everything in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page.

The label was written by hand (using a permanent black ink PITT marker). The label holder was given some a base layer of Light Buttermilk Americana paint and then treated with a wash of Burnt Umber media fluid acrylic paint.

Some detail shots: 

...and once more the finished tag. 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx