Magical Nature Wall-hanging

Hello friends! I hope you are well and healthy. We had a quiet weekend. Today the sun is shining. A few crocus flowers are showing up in the garden, but they quickly disappear again since the deer think they are a fantastic snack.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have an Add Some Texture challenge. So many options with this one! I love texture and you can create it in many ways. I hope you will join us. Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer/company, and this week it is Stamperia. You can see Stamperia's gorgeous papers, stamps and other products here. You don't have to use their products to join us. 

We also have a new guest designer and its Tracey Sabella, with her gorgeous blog Garden of Grace. I hope you will stop by and visit her. 

I made a wall-hanging for the children, to convey the beauty and magic of nature. I used papers from the Cosmos paper pack, which is filled with fantastic nature themed papers. I picked my favorite of the papers and made it the focal point of this project. It was fun to use various media to almost make the paper a part of the cardboard background. The project is 9.5 x 9.5 in.

Cardboard is great for instant texture and it is also a great way to recycle a box. Tear off some of the top layer and then add gesso.

Stamp the bird from the Cosmos Bird set on watercolor paper with Jet Black ink. Color with watercolor pencils. Here you can see that I have already added water to the bird at the top, and not yet to the second bird.

Blend with water and add more shading and details.

Here's the Cosmos paper I used and I also cut out an owl and a frog from two other patterned papers.

Glue to the cardboard with matte medium.

When dry, add Matte Texture paste around the edges, for texture and to hide the edges of the paper.

When dry, continue with Distress crackle paste, which will hide the edges even more. But don't use it everywhere.

Crackles appear as the paste dries. Water down Distress Paint and paint. Mist with more water if needed.

I added some mummy cloth under the owl.

The sentiment was stamped on another piece of patterned paper, which was washed with white paint first, to tone down the pattern, so that the text would be easy to read.

I picked out a sentiment using Clippings Stickers. You can combine them in so many ways, like found poetry.

I added two strips of mummy cloth to the bottom and colored it a little with left-over watered down paint. The twine was recycled from packaging.

I got a stick from the garden and used it as a home for the bird. The bird was adhered with two layers of foam tape.

Here you can see the cool texture of the gesso, matte paste, crackle paste and cardboard.

I hope you will join us this week in our Add Some Texture challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.
As you may know, the Simon Says Stamp Store is accepting new orders, but have longer shipping times for the moment due to the coronavirus. With this in mind we have made the difficult decision to suspend the $50 voucher for this challenge.

We know that many people are staying safe at home and we would love it if you would continue to enter the challenges and have fun! We are all in this together!

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. We also have a new hashtag #SSSUnitedWeCraft

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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