Here's What I Did:

I began by decorating the MDF artist trading block after I had first assembled it and glued it together. I started by painting the entire block white using That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint. When the White paint was totally dry I put a strip of masking tape around the centre of the block to protect a stripe of the White paint. I then painted the remainder of the cube using That's Crafty! paints, Midnight Blue onto the top half and Christmas Red on the bottom half. Removing the tape then gave me my red, white and blue striped effect. I then distressed the cube with a technique I have used many times to add the a more grungy look, lightly sanding the paint down to distress it and then adding a watered down layer of Chestnut Brown Multi Surface paint. I stencilled and painted the circles on the top the only paint additional colour is the yellow which is Dina Wakley Cheddar paint. Everything was then given a coat of matte medium.

The propeller on the top has been suspended above by cutting down an old pencil and painting it red and distressing it as done above before adding the propeller which is from one of the latest greyboard Bits & Pieces sets (again this is becoming another favourite set). Painted with Grey Multi Surface Paint and distressed. The screw is from a batch I made using one of the new Prima moulds (another new favourite) and air dried clay, painted and distressed. 

The left and right sides I have designed in a similar way and use another of the new greyboard Bits and Pieces sets this time the planes (I have painted them to match a picture of the Red Arrows planes that I found on the internet). These have also had the distressed treatment to match with the feel of the piece. The clouds were stamped out and lightly coloured with Stormy Sky and Antique Linen Distress inks and then glued onto the cube. The Planes were glued on slightly lifted from the cube using 3D silicone glue.

The back has another propeller, given the same treatment as the top one and again added to a piece of cut down pencil so it stands proud from the back. I them made a little 'L' plate to hang of the propeller support by painting a piece of card white then sanding it and adding some vintage photo distress ink. The L was die cut from some red painted card and distress to match. I pierced to holes and hung it off with a bit of string.

My main character is courtesy of Katzelkrafts stamps and he is such a 'Dude'. I used a stamping platform for this as I needed paint some of it and then over stamp the detail back in. I painted the plane and propellers with the Multi Surface Paint and then sanded the painted card so I could make his little plane look like the others, I then stamped the image again over the painted parts. I then removed the image from the stamp press and coloured the rest with coloured pencils and cut out to add to the front. The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Chit Chat stickers cut into separate words and edged with a brown pencil. 

I finished it off by adding some feet to the block which are 4 wooden beads that I have painted and distressed and added to the bottom.

Here's What I Used:

That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF ATB's - Set of 6, 3 x 3" & 3 x 4"

That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Midnight Blue, Christmas Red, White, Grey & Chestnut Brown

DecoArt Matte Medium

That's Crafty! Surfaces Greyboard Bits & Pieces - Planes & Boats

That's Crafty! Surfaces Greyboard Bits & Pieces - Saw Blades & Propellers

Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Stormy Skies, Antique Linen

Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint - Cheddar

Prima Mould - Mechanica (back in stock soon)

Air Dry Clay or Paper Clay

Katzelkraft Stamp Set - Les Pabos Aviateur 

Stamping Card 

Coloured Pencils - Wax based like THESE

That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Adhesive

Black Archival Ink Pad

Tim Holtz Sticker Book - Small Talk

Tim Holtz Stamping Platform

Masking Tape

Sand Paper

AALL & Create Stamp Set #5 (for the clouds)

Pencil cut down

Wooden Beads

Hot Glue Gun 

If you have never had a go using an ATB I would highly recommend doing so, they are so much fun to create with and only £9.99 for 6 (3 of each size), well worth a go at that price!

Have a fabulous week and a fabulous Easter and I will see you all next Tuesday when I am sure we  all will have eaten far to much chocolate!

Love

Amanda X