2018 #11 Enshrined: 'In Flanders Fields' with HP {by Lucy Edmondson}

2018 Topic 11: Enshrined

I'm totally loving the serene blues and greens that Lucy has used in this project, they are such a pretty contrast to the red of the flower! And the hidden drawer is such a delight! Fabulous Lucy! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Lucy here, from Lucy's True Colours, with you today, and I'd like to share with you a Poppy Remembrance Shrine, using a PaperArtsy chippie niche.

I'd had this chippie shrine in my stash for some time so it seemed a perfect opportunity to use it. Poppies have always been important to me. I love their delicate orange-red faces bobbing in the breeze from the hedgerows, but most of all they remind me of my childhood home of Richmond. Richmond Poppy Factory opened in 1925 in an old brewery building, and is still in that same building today, which I drive past each week. The workforce was originally provided by the injured ex-servicemen from the Star and Garter Home, one of the most stunning and iconic buildings in Richmond overlooking the Thames. I heard a snippet on the news the other week that the oldest poppy seller has just retired aged 103. She sold her first poppy on Richmond Bridge aged six!

So it was a pleasure to use the many poppy and poppy seed pod stamps from the various Hot Picks sets, the soldiers, and the snippets from the poem, 'In Flanders Fields'. But most of all I enjoyed painting the vibrant poppy! If you would like to learn more about the chippie shrines and the process of putting the pieces together, please see the PaperArtsy blog post here.

I needed plenty of pieces of card to cover all the little pieces for the shrine, so I used a simple baby wipe splodging technique with Fresco Finish Paints in Ice Blue, Bora Bora, Dusty Teal, Mermaid, and a little Zesty Zing. I was aiming for a good contrast eventually with my poppy. (Whoops, apologies seem to have grabbed a discontinued, Ice Blue, in trying to knock back my colours a little, try Antarctic).

I used a huge selection of stamps from Hot Picks HP1505,  HP1605, HP1301, and HP1305, to stamp all over the prepared cardstock in different colours, often using just parts of stamps, and then used the card to cover all the chippie pieces.

My favourite part - the poppy! I stamped it in black archival HP1505. I curved it slightly, as you can see. I held the frame over it so I could get the positioning right.

When I painted the poppy, I carefully used a little watered down Snowflake underneath first so the true colours would shine through, and not be affected by the coloured card underneath. I decided not to do this for the leaves as I thought the greeny-blues would look pretty. Close up the pattern gives a lovely veiny look to the leaves. For the poppy I have used Cherry Red, Autumn Fire, and London Bus, to give some variation between orange and red, and for the leaves I have used Hey Pesto.

To finish, I have stamped the large clock on the back plate from HP1509 to reflect the passage of time since the Great War, the many wars since, and the many Remembrance Days the poppies have signified.

I enjoyed every minute of making this project! I loved the contrast of the blues and greens with the bright poppy, and having such a huge range of stamps to work with, within my theme, and I loved using the ready cut chipboard pieces so that I knew the drawer would slide in and out (no chance if I tried that piece of engineering myself!). I enjoyed reflecting on the beauty of the poppy, its history, and its personal meaning to me. I had intended adding a door to the shrine, but in the end hadn't wanted to have to open it in order to view the poppy. 

If you make one of the chippie niches, do use some masking tape as Leandra suggests to hold the pieces together whilst the glue dries, or you will be doing everything one handed for quite some hours! To finish my project, I found a little knob for my drawer, a Kilner style ceramic beer bottle top bought from a French 'vide grenier', or 'car boot sale'. It was fun to incorporate a little found item to add a personal touch.

Blog: Lucy's True Colours
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Twitter: @CraftyLuce

To join our challenge and win a NEW Zinski apron:

Simply make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page.

The current topic link Topic 11: Enshrined will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, July 1st 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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