With Brave Wings She Flies by Gill Humphrey

My make this week is very definitely all about texture and taking a leap of faith if you have never tried it before as is is the penulitmate step which involves covering everything and I do mean everything with brown oil paint that brings our all of the details. So how is it made?

Firstly I rolled out some air dry clay and stamped the large butterfly from the Zen Butterfly stamp set into the clay creating an impression of the stamp. I then carefully cut around the image and using a little water smoothed out the edges before setting the piece aside overnight to dry. Once fully dried I added That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints in shades of pink and purple - Light Pink, Lavender and Purple. Blending the paints to give the butterfly an ombre paint effect.

To make the background I chose one of the largest of the Faux Embroidery Hoops and added a layer of Fine Texture Paste  through the Quartet of Butterflies stencil and once dry painted added the outer ring of the hoop and painted over everything with  Apricot Multi Surface paint. Whilst the paint was drying I stamped the smaller butterfly image from the stamp set onto rice paper using Jet Black Archival ink and then adhered them on to the now dry surface.

The next step is absolutely vital to the success of this type of project as it allows the oil paint to be lifted - if you do not cover every bit of the surface the oil paint will bind irreversibly and you end up with black patches. The whole piece was then covered with Calambour matte varnish. To ensure that I really do cover every bit I tend to do this in two layers drying in between each layer

Once the varnish has fully dried you then take an oil paint in a dark brown shade and thin it down with white spirit before applying to the whole of the piece - your pretty piece will now become a very dirty brown piece and then the magic begins - Bit by bit using baby wipes or damp cloth lift off the oil paint from the surface of your piece leaving behind the paint in all of the nooks and crannies. Your piece will become more vintage in appearance and all of the detail from the texture paste and stamping into the clay will become more visible.

Finally add a sentiment of your choice.