Gothic Fairy Arch

I've finished my Gothic fairy arch and have a few pictures to share with you and I'm also going to add it to one of the monthly challenges at Gecko Galz.

To begin with I die cut my arch from card to make a substrate and then  gave it a coat of gesso. 

I used the Pretty Gothic Window A5 die from Pretty Gets Gritty. They do some really cool dies that are great for making your substrates for projects.

With a small pallet knife, I scrapped  some sand texture paste across my arch. Then  I mixed a little acrylic paint and kept dabbing until my arch started looking a bit aged and rusty, drying in between the layers.

I then dry brushed with some grey acrylic paint - well gesso mixed with some black acrylic to dull it down a little. 

Next it got a spritz of frozen  toffee pretty pearl spray and then I edged the arch with rose gold wax. I was quite happy with how it turned out and told myself that i could leave it alone now!

I went on a search for some rice paper as I wanted the background of the arch to be transparent and found a leftover piece from one of my cardmaking projects that I had printed off.

I had also made a batch of cogs up a while ago. They were die cut from soup carton packaging and then I'd added some sand mixed into my acrylic paint. They were finally edged in copper wax.

The pearl spray has highlighted the texture in the arch a lot more and I then started to add some texture to the edges of my fairy image too, using a little coloured sand texture paste and seed beads.

I chose an image from the Gecko Galz Pixie Dream land Kit for the focal point of my gothic arch. These are really lovely images and I was spoilt for choice.  I also added a few butterflies from their Butterfly Wings Digital Collage Set too.

My paper flowers have also been edged with a little metallic gold paint and the tiny translucent flowers have  micro beads in their centres. I also thought that the wording was very apt for my project.

This was a fun little project to make.

What have you got planned for the day? Whatever it is, I hope it is a good one for you.

Challenges

Creative Artiste - AMM        Top 3  04/2024

Let's Craft & Create - Add a butterfly

Ally's Angels - AG

Crafts Galore -AG

Classic Designs - AG

Creative Fingers - AG

Ellibelles Corner - I spy with my little eye - something with wings

We Love to Create - AMM

Crafty Galz Corner - AG

Unicorn - use dies

A Place to start - add one or more flowers

Path of Positivity - AG - Use your wings   Top Pick  04/2024

WOYWW #777

Happy 'What's on Your desk Wednesday!'  WOYWW

This is my first contribution to the blog, that I came across the other day, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I craft at my kitchen table - its a good space with plenty of natural light and I just bring down what I need to craft with, which is normally in a draw or box that I can just stick on the table or floor. My mess is kept at the end of the table which is big enough....sometimes ha ha.

So, I decided to make a gothic arch for an ethereal Spring challenge on Gecko Galz this month. I die cut my arch from card to make a substrate and then  gave it a coat of gesso.

With a small pallet knife, I scrapped  some sand texture paste across my arch. Then  I mixed a little acrylic paint and kept dabbing until my arch started looking a bit aged and rusty, drying in between the layers.

I then dry brushed with some grey acrylic paint - well gesso mixed with some black acrylic to dull it down a little. 

Next it got a spritz of frozen  toffee pretty pearl spray and then I edged the arch with rose gold wax. I was quite happy with how it turned out and told myself that i could leave it alone now!I 

I want a transparent background on my arch, so I think I will find some rice paper in my draw to stick on the back of my arch.

I had made a batch of my cogs up a while ago. They were die cut from soup carton packaging and then I'd added some sand mixed into my acrylic paint. They were finally edged in copper wax.

I have a fairy image which will be my focal piece for my project and I'll then start adding all my embellishments.

I'm quite a slow crafter and some projects can take me a while to finish but hopefully I will crack on to finish this little one off.

Where I sit is also perfect for me to look into my garden, the other place I prefer to spend my time. It's small and wildlife friendly and a lot easier for me to tend to these days - a haven for me.

We've got some robins nesting in our bird box again this year so hopefully we'll see them fledge in May, which is a lovely sight.

Have a great day,  whatever you have planned for yourself 

Steampunk Box

I have finally finished another project from last year and I can now put my Steampunk themed box to some use.

The wooden box itself came from The Works, they have a great selection of boxes to craft with and often have various sizes on offer, which is a good time to buy them. They are pretty decent quality for a lightweight box too.

I love LOVE steampunk! There is so much inspiration from Stamperia for their Captain Vagabond collections, sometimes you don't know where to start yourself but I absolutely love this image on one of their rice papers that I have used to cover my box. I haven't gone over top with the decoration because I loved the rice paper too much.

I made the cogs last year after watching a great craft live from Leonie Pujol. She is an amazing inspirational artist. So, I cut up my cardboard soup packaging ready to die cut my cogs and mixed a little sand into my gesso for an uneven gritty texture. 

I didn't have any rust paint so I found a set of mini acrylic paints in a box that my son had left (I think they were from The Works) just perfect for mixing small amounts of paint and when dry I added the copper wax which finished them off nicely. I was really happy with how they turned out.

I used some of the plastic embellishments from the Captain Vagabond collection to decorate the box but used the rice papers all around and edged the box in white gold wax.

After I had varnished the box, I noticed 2 large drips at the back which had dried hard which I really liked, so I added a little white gold wax to highlight them even more. If I had tried to create these, you can bet it would have gone wrong.

I kept the inside quite simple by painting it in a neutral colour with just that striking rice paper design down the centre.

The glossy accent on Sir Vagabonds' glasses worked very well and I used crackle gel on the clock lens on his hat.  I feel the need to do another box now! I love mixed media and really don't do enough of it.

If you're crafting, what's on your craft table today? Have a great day whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting

Challenges

Arty Divas - ATG

Creative Artiste - AMMG

Mix it Up - ATG no stamping

Love to Craft- ATG

Crafts Galore Encore - ATG  (Design Team Favourite)

Love to Scrap - ATG

Creative Fingers - ATG

WeLove2Create - AMMG

Paper a La Mode - ATG