The Fairy Garden Wagon...

Hi everyone...

The weekend is over and it seems to have flown by way too fast but to celebrate the start of a brand new week, it's time for a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week our theme is called ~ THINGS WITH WHEELS!

Way back, towards the end of last year when I originally saw this theme, I immediately knew what I wanted to create because this was one of those projects that I'd had in mind for a while but just needed to find the time to create it! The whole project was inspired by one of my favourite series of books from childhood, The Flower Fairies and all that I needed to do was bring my vision and my little vintage fairy wagon to life. So, I'm really excited to share this one and hope you love the project I've made...

So let's begin ~ it's time for this week's project!

To begin with I took two Vignette Panels, the large and second largest in the pack. Using the largest panel first, I covered it with a piece of Worn Wallpaper, leaving a slight border around the edge to reveal some of the wood. I adhered the paper with Matte Collage Medium and then applied a coat of Vintage Collage medium over the top to seal it. Once the medium was dry, I then ran my Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon around the edge, but used a semi dry baby wipe to blend the colour towards the centre.

Taking the second smaller panel, I ran some Design Tape around the raw edge of the wood and then attached the panel centrally over the top of the larger covered panel.

Taking the Mini Pulley Wheels, I wanted these to look a little rusty so applied some Grit Paste to random areas and allowed it to dry. I then applied Crayons over the paste, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo and Black Soot and built up the colour to obtain the look of rust before attaching the wheels to base of my Vignette Panels using the Matte Collage Medium. Set the panels to one side to allow to dry and for the wheels to be securely attached.

Moving onto the next section of my wagon, I took the second smallest Vignette Box and flipped it upside down, so the aperture is on the bottom and you have a flat surface to work on. I covered the top and sides with the same design of Worn Wallpaper as I used on the panel and applied the Vintage Collage Medium over the surface.

Using the matching size of Vignette Frame, I prepped the wood with gesso and once it was dry, I painted the frame with Antique Linen Distress Paint. After heat drying the paint, I dry brushed the surface with Ground Espresso Distress Paint, dried it and then applied some more of the Vintage Collage Medium over the top before attaching the painted frame to the top of my box.

To add a real touch of vintage to the box, I then applied some Crackle Texture Paste to the corners, varying the depth of paste to give different sizes of crackle. Once the paste has worked it's magic, I took the Hickory Smoke Crayon and ran it around the edges, blending out the colour with a baby wipe and allowing some of the crayon to sink into the cracks.

I attached the finished box to the panels.

We can now move onto the fun part...decorating the box.

For this I used a variety of different idea-ology pieces and mixed it with a few bits of my own and some natural moss.

The little fairy is taken from Tim's new Baseboard Paper Dolls (if you love making 3D projects and have loved the original paper dolls but found that you needed to strengthen them to become freestanding ~ YOU NEED THESE in your life). I colour tinted her with Distress Marker pens and placed some of the amazing new Transparent Wings on the back before sitting her on a cotton spool. As a finishing touch I added a little sparkle to her hair and attached a Mirrored Star.

The little potted trees behind her are made using the Mini Woodland trees, that I dyed with Peeled Paint Distress Spray before placing them in Thimbles.

I attached the little fairy girl and thimble potted trees to the recess of the framed Vignette Box and then placed natural moss around them, added some vintage mushrooms I found online and placed some bauble findings in amongst the foliage.

I also added moss around the base of the box.

The little butterflies are taken from the Snippets Ephemera set and placed on florists wire, before being attached amongst the arrangement.

The tiny flowers are all snipped off the Bouquet Findings bunches which I had dyed with Milled Lavender Spray.

As a finishing touch all that was needed was my hardware and I added a hitch fastener to either side of the wagon and attached some rope...

...and then placed a Clippings Sticker, The Story Teller into a Metal Label Pull (if you haven't got these, you can use the Mini Hardware Pulls) and attached the pull to the front of the box.

So that completes this week's project and I hope it's inspired you with some ideas of your own, there are so many different themes you can create and I know I'll definitely be making some more wagons because I loved making this one!

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:

Distress Paint: Black Soot, Picket Fence, Antique Linen, Ground Espresso
Distress Spray Stain: Peeled Paint, Milled Lavender
Distress Crayons: Rusty Hinge, Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Hickory Smoke, Gathered Twigs

Idea-ology: Vignette Box, Vignette Panel, Hitch Fasteners, Transparent Wings, Bouquet Findings, Baubles, Clippings Stickers, Baseboard Paper Dolls, Metal Label Pulls or Mini Hardware Pulls, Vignette Frames, Snippets, Mini Pulley Wheels, Mini Woodland Trees, Thimbles, Mirrored Stars

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Crackle Texture Paste, Grit Paste, Vintage Collage Medium

Surfaces: Worn Wallpaper

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Tim Holtz Guillotine
Collage Brushes

Heat Gun
Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool
Palette Knife
Paint Brushes
Moss, vintage toadstools, rope, florist wire, cotton spool  ~ all from my own stash