2016 #11 The Door To My Imagination {by Lauren Hatwell}

 2016 Topic 11: Our House

Hi everyone, Lauren here again for the Our House topic.

I never lose the joy of planning a project from start to finish and watching it come to life. The start of this project was a great Hot Picks Sentiment Stamp and a sprinkling of pure magic courtesy of the new range of Infusions Dye Stains. You can get some amazing effects with them and they make distressing so easy.

Step One: I started with a box frame I found in the bargain basket at a local DIY store. It had no glass in it but I could instantly see the possibilities and I set about painting it with a basecoat of French Roast Fresco Paint, followed by a coat of PaperArtsy Crackle Effect and then a coat of Vanilla Fresco Paint for a nice distressed crackle. Next I stamped some of the words and numbers from HP1602 randomly over the surface before stencilling some harlequin pattern and the poppy heads from JOFY Stencil 007. For a bit of easy distressing I spritzed on some water and sprinkled on some A Bit Jaded Infusions. I was really pleased with the effect.

HP1602

 

Step Two: For the roof I cut out square piece of card, the same size as the frame (I used some heavy weight board saved from some packaging). I cut it diagonally across the middle from corner to corner to create two triangles and then cut two strips of card which were just a little wider than the depth of the frame and the same length as the short sides of my triangles. I glued them together to make a roof shape and then repeated the paint process above. I added a punched scalloped border which I coated with crackle paste as a final detail.

Step Three: For the inside of the frame I started with three squares of card and die cut three squares out of the middle in steadily decreasing sizes so that I had a kind of tiered square effect. I then stamped each of the pieces of card with the collage of pictures from HP1605 before colouring in. I chose to use just one colour on the background of each layer as I felt they would stand out a bit more. I offset the squares, trimmed and layered them with foam tape to give a bit more depth and before putting them inside the frame where the glass would have been

HP1605

Step Four: Now for my old pal "Shrek Girl"! I stamped her twice, once in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and once in Ochre Archival Ink, so I could emboss her crown with gold. I coloured Shrek Girl with my Copic Markers and fussy cut the pieces I wanted before layering onto a piece of plain white card I'd sponged with a simple cloud design using blue Distress Ink. I stuck this piece directly to the backing plate of the box frame to add more depth.

Step Five: I always love the final tweaks; the little details that really make a project come to life. My doorway needed some of those gorgeous butterflies from HP1602 so I stamped and coloured three with my Faber Castell Pitt Pens, fussy cut them and stuck them randomly over my little house.  

Step Six: Last but not least, I needed a key to my magical doorway. I thought about distressing the key but then realised it would actually be quite shiny as it is in CONSTANT use so I picked a key from my stash which looked used but not neglected, added a small tag made with some lovely linen effect paper and stamped with the sentiment from HP1605. The edges of the tag are distressed with a little French Roast Fresco Paint rubbed on with my finger to pick up the texture. 

I wanted the effect of a slightly distressed outer doorway (the real world, if you like) leading to a colourful world of possibility and it was so easy to do. Using the Infusions with the cracked paint effect really ramps up that feeling of distressed wood and I think they would work really well with 

the metallic finish Fresco Paints too. Copper with Emerald Isle would be a gorgeous combination,for instance.  I think Pewter and Black Knight would also make a lovely combination, almost like Mercury Glass. That's definitely on my list of things to try and I hope you'll give it a trtoo. Open up that doorway to YOUR imagination. Get sprinkling...

Lauren Hatwell

MarvelousMechanicalMouseOrgan

This is brilliant Lauren I'd stay there with Shrek Girl ... Love the offset frames in the centre along with the bold patterns and colours. The added additions of crackle and 3d butterflies make for an overall quirky piece of art. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us! ~Gillian

We would love to see how you interpret this House topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #11: Our House, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Our House link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 12th 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.