That's Crafty!: Nature's Gatherings by Fliss Goodwin

Hello!

Well it's official! I'm hooked on creating with inchies, twinchies and dominoes! This week I challenged myself to create a piece of artwork with stamps not specific to small art and the gorgeous nature stamps from Lynne Moncrieff have come out to play - I think they're perfect for a nature themed collage.

Step by Step:

My chosen substrate for this piece is one of the fab MDF Uprights in my favourite square shape. The first step was to add a pattern with a stencil and white texture paste. When it was dry I brushed on a coat of white gesso to form a base layer.

I then decided on the placement of my planned embellishments and took a photo to remind myself where to add them later on.

The next step was to brush the background with Chestnut Brown Multi Surface Paint. I did this roughly and as you'll see, some areas are lighter than others.

I then brushed on a coat of Crackle Glaze and left this to go tacky (it took about half an hour). The next step was to brush on 2 shades of Multi Surface Paint - Light Blue and Teal, roughly in vertical stripes and mixing the colours into each other a little.

As you can see, I got some lovely crackle on there. I treated the base section in the same way, reversing the colours so the top coat is brown.

I then prepared my embellishments, choosing to cover them with paper but one I created myself using Aqua, Ochre and Walnut Flat Matte Sprays.

I covered all the elements with the paper and them stamped on them with a variety of images from a Nature's Gatherings stamp set and a Scribbled Words set. I used 2 different types of ink - Broken China and Vintage Photo Oxide inks for a soft effect and VersaFine Clair ink in Warm Breeze and Acorn for a more vibrant effect.

I decided my collage needed something extra to bring it to life so I stamped some of Lynne's wildflowers with the blue and brown inks and fussy cut them out. I added these in, tucking some behind the tiles to give dimension.