Happy Village: Paint it up

Hi everyone! Monday, and time for some new Simon Says Stamp and Show inspiration. This week the challenge theme is ‘Paint it up’ – so take out your paints and have some fun. I surely had a lot of fun making a happy little town in a in a recycled toy packaging box, using lots of paint and dry embossing.

I love building little scenes and I have wanted to make a dimensional town with the Artful Dwellings die for a long time and this little shadow box that started its life as a box for kiddies foam stamps, formed a perfect setting. I did a little tutorial:

The box was black and glossy, so the first thing I did was to paint it with white gesso.

The whole box was covered by old book paper using multi-medium.

When the multi-medium was dry, I painted the box with watered-down cream paint. The inside was painted with Soap Powder and a bit of Speckled Egg for the sky and Lettuce for the grassy hill, making sure not to cover up all the text. Then I stamped it with a swirl and a texture stamp using Stazon Olive Green and Ultramarine. The balloon and birds were stamped with Stazon Jet Black.

The houses and roofs were die-cut from grungeboard, with the roofs being cut twice. I placed Mini Openings as windows and doors, where I wanted them to be. The roofs were cut with different On the Edge dies.

All the pieces were dry embossed with different folders.

Then they were painted with paint dabbers, using lots of different colours.

I sanded off some of the paint from the raised parts.

Then the houses were inked with Distress Inks in different colour. The paint resists the ink, so the ink remains only in the parts that were sanded off.

Some of the houses got doors. I added mica for windows and tiny pieces of lace as curtains. Rock Candy Distress Stickles was smeared on some of the houses for shine.

The Branch Tree and On the Fence were die-cut from grungeboard. The tree was painted with Vintage Photo Crackle paint and the fence with Picket Fence. When the paint was dry, the fence was distressed with Antique Linen Distress Stain.

The clouds were die-cut twice from white cardstock. The larger cloud on the Kites set forms a perfect mat for the smaller cloud. The two smaller clouds were embossed with a swirl folder and covered with a bit of Distress Stickles Rock Candy.

The lamp post was die-cut from grungeboard, painted silver and coated with Glossy Accents. I added a little piece of mica to it.

The heart and Word Play letters were also die-cut from grungeboard, painted red and coated with Glossy Accents.

The little couple were stamped on white cardstock and cut out. I also added an idea-ology key.

The bike was stamped on acetate and I found the trimmings roses in my scrap box, they had been dyed pink with Victorian Velvet Distress Stain.

I added two quotes about homes, the one was stamped with letter stamps as part of the title, the other one printed.

I used a lot of foam dots when assembling the scene, creating more dimension. You can see some of them peaking through from the side, but not when you look straight at the scene.

Try placing the embossing folders so that you get the parts of it that you want, here I placed a large clock in the centre of the roof.

I hope you will join us this week! As always, one lucky participant will win a $50 gift voucher at Simon Says Stamps.

Thank you for looking! Have a great week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Artful Dwellings, Mini Openings Movers & Shapers, Kites Framelits, Holiday Lamppost, Branch Tree, Wordplay, Hearts Set Movers & Shapers, Sizzix On the Edge: Brackets, Mini Scallop & Pinking, Scallops, On the Fence
Embossing folders: Sizzix: Harlequin & Stripes, Dot Matrix & Gridlock, Diamond Plate & Riveted Metal, Collage & Notebook, Checkerboard & Cracked, Burlap & Swirls, Bubble & Honeycomb, Brick & Woodgrain, Curlique & Hearts, Clocks & Print.
Stamps: Hero Arts: Magical Background CG211, Hey y'all,  Past Times AC007, Basic Lowercase Letters LL188; Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Mixed Media, Mini Ornates.
Ink: Distress Ink: Black Soot, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Broken China, Victorian Velvet, Peacock Feathers, Stormy Sky; Distress Stain: Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet; Stazon: Olive Green, Ultramarine, Jet Black.
Paint: Ranger Adirondack paint dabbers: Silver, Copper, Juniper, Pitch Black, Lettuce, Lemonade, Shell Pink, Sandal; Jenni Bowlin paint dabbers: Soap Powder, Speckled Egg, Chili Powder; Distress Crackle Paint: Picket Fence, Vintage Photo
Other: Ranger: Glossy Accents, Matte Multi-Medium; Tim Holtz idea-ology: Locket Keys, grungeboard, Trimmings.