Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal 2

Hello everyone, Alison here, arriving at Terminal 2 of our Destination Inspiration posts this month.  Just to remind you, here's what's in the travel bags...

Substrate - Canvas

Colour - Bubblegum Pink

Technique - Texture Paste through a Stencil

Product - Lace

I hope you've already seen Jennie's lovely creation at Terminal 1, and here's where I landed up with the contents of my luggage...

It's a pretty chunky 6x6 canvas, so there was lots of room to play on the sides too.  But it also means that we're pretty photo-heavy today in order to try to catch things from every angle!

Pink isn't a colour I use often (though it has been known - there are some links in the sneak peek back over at Words and Pictures if you're curious), and I simply don't have anything which would count as a true Bubblegum Pink, so I cooked up a combination of Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick which I hope is quite bubble-gummy.  And, since straight pink doesn't quite look like "me" to me, I added in the spice of some Ripe Persimmon and some soft Dried Marigold to the mix.

I started by gluing several lengths of lace across the lower part of the canvas and then stencilled texture paste through one of Andy Skinner's stencils, all of this spilling over the sides too, of course.

I gave it all a coat of DecoArt Everlasting Chalky Finish (White) and then a coat of the Primitive (a soft stone colour) after that as I'd decided to add some crackle (of course).  I applied the crackle glaze (the one specially formulated for the chalk paints) with my finger so that I could be nice and random with how thickly or thinly it was spread in different places.

Once dry, I went again with the Everlasting, and it crackled up nicely to give a weathered, aged finish (excuse the deep shadows - morning sunlight on my craft desk!).

Then I started adding my colours... just love how they split and run over the cracks and the lettering.  You'll notice it's mostly nice and bright here...

... but as it dried overnight, it took on a softer hue, especially over the lace.  I could have solved that with a layer of matte medium and reapplying bright colours over that, but I rather liked the slightly gentler effect.

As you can see, I lightened up towards one corner of the canvas - it's mostly just Worn Lipstick and Dried Marigold up here.

And of course, the colour shading carries on over the sides...

 so that the bottom edge is pretty full on...

... as is the right hand side.

The left side shades towards the pastels as the front of the canvas does...

... and the top is very pale and subtle except for the right end where it meets the full on colour again.

It took me a while to sort out exactly what was going to go on top of all this colourful texture.  I knew flowers had to be part of it... 

But it took me a while to decide a photo was also needed, and then to get the right photo.  This beauty is from one of Finnabair's ephemera packs.

As you can see I'd initially thought one of these large wordbands would be the main focal point, with no photo at all...

... but once the photo arrived there was still room for this one, altered with some alcohol inks, to keep its place.

The breakthrough for me - from something which seemed pretty but not quite alive - was when I tried out some of these gorgeous Calico Craft Parts maple leaves.  

And when I remembered I had the tiny flower heads used on a couple of my favourite projects and brought them into the picture too... 

Well, that's when I started to get really happy.

And the final piece in the puzzle, the one that made me think, "ah, now we're getting there", was the rusty wire to hold the large wordband in place.

At last I had a canvas which hit the spot for me.  I hope it does for you too, and I hope you'll be back next Monday to see who's arriving next at Destination Inspiration.

In the meantime, do come and play along with Astrid's Texture and Embossing Pastes challenge (which all the DIs this month could also serve as inspiration for, given the travel bag contents!), and do remember to pop in on Friday to check out our Pinworthy Guests.  See you again soon!

Alison x

Words and Pictures