I am creating...

Hello all!  Alison (butterfly) here with a hanging that is nothing to do with Christmas - except for me giving myself the gift of a bit of playtime!  Click on the photos if you want a closer view of the fun I had.

It's full of my favourite things - materials and techniques - and there were a couple of experiments along the way.  I just kept following my fingers...

I started with a piece of mountboard and added torn book pages and lots of texture using both gesso and texture paste.

I applied the paste both freehand and through a stencil to create a less precise, slightly grungy look.

Then I had a play with adding a blob of Fresco paint, spritzing generously with water and then letting the colours trickle around the textures.

At times, I helped the paint along with a paintbrush; at others I just tilted the mountboard and let it trickle.  It's a technique I played with recently and wanted to have another go with, as I loved the results.

It's basically just two colours - Limelight and Inky Pool, blending and re-blending to create gorgeous blue-greens of all kinds.

The book pages ended up getting a bit swallowed, so I added some more, and used more gesso and some Dylusions sprays as well as the Frescos to blend them into the existing background.

In a recent trip to a certain Swedish furniture shop, I leapt upon some jars of coloured sand and chipped glass - and here's the sand putting in its first appearance on a project (the glass is still to come).  Cool texture!

The words are from the new Artistic Stamper plate, Journaling Words #5 (or "journalling" for the Brits!).

They're stamped on gesso'd book pages using Adirondack Stream.  You'll notice some Artistic Stamper Mini Polka Dots and Calligraphy stamping in the background too, done in Archival ink.

I just love these slightly mad fonts.  I added to the wackiness with a bit of extra text doodling using a Sharpie white pen and a green Stampers Big Brush pen.

Even having inked the edges of the mountboard with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink, I felt it still needed a bit more body to the whole thing.  So it was off to my favourite crafting material - a bit of recycled corrugated cardboard!

I inked it with some Gathered Twigs first of all, but that wasn't quite right, so I ended up adding my two Fresco paints to the edges too, and then gave the frame a good coat of Gloss Medium.

It was at this point that I decided to mount the words onto cardboard too, so that all got the same treatment.

It took a few goes, but worth persevering with, I think.  I love the glossy edges setting off the gesso'd central panel.

And I'm so happy with the texture and those painty effects...

It just really pleases me.

Another favourite crafting material, a bit of rough twine, and a couple of eyelets finish the piece off.

I had no idea where we were going when we started, but I do like where we ended up!

Thanks so much for stopping by today - and I'm sorry that it's not more Christmassy here.  Hope you like it anyway... it's always lovely to hear what you think.

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Journaling Words #5, Mini Polka Dots, Calligraphic Mat #19
Fresco Finish Paints: Inky Pool, Limelight
Distress Inks: Gathered Twigs
Dylusions Sprays: Calypso Teal, Dirty Martini, Cut Grass, Vibrant Turquoise
Adirondack Ink: Stream
Archival Inks: Cobalt, Aquamarine
White Sharpie pen
Claudine Hellmuth Studio: Gesso, Gloss Multi Medium
Twine
From my stash: mountboard, corrugated cardboard, Prima stencil (but there are plenty to choose from here), book pages, Stampers Big Brush pen, texture paste (but this Soft White would work just as well)