I Know That I Am Home...

Hello everyone and happy Monday...

Hope you all had a great weekend and as always, the start of a brand new week, means that there is a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week our theme is called ~ DOWN ON THE FARM! There are so many interpretations for this challenge and so many amazing products to use, maybe you will choose the awesome new Funny Farm Stamp Set from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous or even one of his older stamp sets, On The Farm ~ whatever you decide to use, then we can't wait to see what you create!

For my project, I wanted to create a piece that was actually inspired by childhood memories of many trips to the country! It was something that we would do most Sunday afternoons, get out of the city and head off to explore and find pastures new and exciting places that we hadn't visited before and after sorting through all of my Tim Holtz's idea-ology products and collating everything I could find that was to do with the countryside and farms, I thought I would tell the story of this adorable little girl, down on the farm!

So let's begin and here's how I created this project...

With all the idea-ology in front of me, I started by creating a background and I took a canvas panel, 24 x 18cm and painted the surface with a wash of Antique Linen Distress Paint. After drying the paint thoroughly, I cut a panel of paper from the Memoranda Paper Stash, cutting it slightly smaller in size than the canvas board and choosing a pattern that I thought represented my farmhouse theme perfectly.

I then mounted the panel of paper onto the painted board, attaching it with Matte Collage Medium and also applying a coat of the medium over the top to seal the paper which would allow me to blend Distress Crayons over the top. I also had some offcuts of paper in my stash and collaged these pieces of paper onto the panel.

Once the medium was dry, I then added some Crackle Texture Paste around the edges of the paper and the board. Set the canvas aside and wait for the crackles to appear and the paste to dry, before taking the Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon and applying the colour around the edges of the board and over the crackles.

Using a semi dry baby wipe, gently blend the colour of the crayon over the surface, accentuating all the textures that you've applied to the board and then flick a small amount of Black Soot Distress Paint over the entire surface of the panel.

I now have a rustic looking background for my vintage country farmhouse theme and moving on, I started to create the framed picture. Tim has included the most perfect image for my theme in his brand new Remnants Layers set, the 'Greetings From Watermeet. Mich' illustration and after ageing the edges of the image, I mounted it onto gold metallic kraft stash. I then took the largest size from the Vignette Panels set of 4 and applied a light wash of watered down gesso over the top.

Allow the gesso to dry and then using a palette knife, apply a good amount of the Crackle Paste over the top. Set aside to let the crackle magic to appear.

Whilst this is doing it's thing, I made my little shelf using Tim's Bracket Trims with the pinked edge ~ I cannot tell you how much I love these trims, in the past I've always made these little shelves using pieces of wood or chipboard but now I have these in my life and I am so, so happy and will be showing you more ways of how to use them in future posts!

I made the shelf using three of the longest length of pinked bracket trims and adhered these together using Collage Medium to create a shelf. When the medium has dried, I then applied a coat of gesso to prime the shelf, before painting them with Weathered Wood Distress Paint. Again, allow the paint to dry and then apply some of the Crackle Paste over the top.

Taking both of the crackled pieces, the vignette panel and the bracket trim shelf, apply a combination of Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood and Gathered Twigs Distress Crayons over the top, blending the colour into the substrates. Mount the postcard image onto the centre of the vignette panel, leaving a border of the gorgeous crackle showing around the edge and then mount the panel onto the top section of the canvas board, placing the shelf directly below. At this stage, I also added some Hardware Heads to each corner of the frame and, on either side of the shelf ~ all the little hardware heads were coloured with a little gilding wax to make them appear a little more rusty in appearance.

Now for the fun part, all those gorgeous little embellishments...

The little milk bottles are a selection of Corked Vials and Tiny Corked Vials, that I coated with Matte Collage Medium, before painting with Picket Fence Distress Paint to create that milky white glass. After wrapping some twine around the necks of the bottles, I added tiny labels stickers to the fronts, complete with Remnant Rub numbers.

I then arranged these onto my shelf, together with some of the new Botanical Layers pieces, those beautiful lilac flowers and some of the Milk Caps, placing these all along the length of the shelf, adding foam tape to the backs to create different dimensions.

The little girl is one of the new Baseboard Paper Dolls which I colour tinted with Distress Crayons and then added some foam tape to the back and attached her to appear as though she is sitting on the bottle caps.

To complete the scene I added some moss, some Art Stones, a few bouquet findings which I coloured with Shaded Lilac Distress Stain and some dried flowers that I had in my stash, placing them in between all the ephemera pieces. I also added some moss and a little bouquet finding in the top right hand corner of the wooden vignette panel.

Finally, I adhered a Clippings Sticker into place, attaching it onto the little shelf...

...attached a butterfly from the Botanical Layers, shaping it's wings to create movement and attaching it fluttering onto the picture.

...and finished the piece by placing some Nailhead Findings onto the board.

So, that's my project finished and as always, I hope it's inspired you with ideas of your own using some of the techniques I've used to build up the scene but maybe making it personal to you, with memories of your own that you want to treasure!

Don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Pinked Etcetera Trims

Distress Paint: Black Soot, Weathered Wood, Picket Fence, Antique Linen
Distress Spray Stain: Shaded Lilac
Distress Crayons: Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood, Gathered Twigs
Distress Marker Pens

Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Layers Remnants, Corked Vials, Tiny Corked Vials, Bouquet Findings, Botanical Layers, Snippets, Clippings Stickers, Special Delivery Remnant Rub, Memoranda Paper Stash, Nailhead Findings, Baseboard Paper Dolls, Label stickers, Milk Caps

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Crackle Texture Paste, Vintage Gold Alchemy Wax
Art Stones, Mini Art Stones
Surfaces: Media Board, Metallic Kraft Stash

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
Splatter Brush
Palette Knife
Moss and dried flowers from my own stash