Paper Artsy #3up Challenge... I'm featured Today for "Night Four: Squiggly Ink"

I'm so excited to be playing in Paper Artsy's 3up Challenge and I invite you to my "Inspiration Garden House". Please take some time and see all the wonderful work by fans of Paper Artsy on the Paper Artsy Blog HERE.

I while back I was on twitter and I came across a tweet calling for volunteers for #3up challenge with Paper Artsy... it peaked my interest so I responded. A few weeks later a envy of goodies from ENGLAND arrived with my items to use for the challenge with specific instructions. I love a good challenge... and boy oh boy - Leandra at Paper Artsy must be having a good laugh at throwing us all for a loopy-di-loop! It indeed was a challenge, but I have to admit - my best work comes out of that which is not my usual style. My "Inspiration Garden House" is featured today {tonight in England} for Paper Arsty's 3 UP Night Four: Squiggly Ink on the Paper Artsy Blog HERE. Please take some time and see all the wonderful work by fans of Paper Artsy.

The #3up Challenge: 

In my assortment of creative goodies for the challenge there was a scalloped wooden book page, wooden buttons, some teeny tags, Squiggly Ink Flora and Fauna Stamps and some color swatches. I immediately decided on creating a birdhouse using the scalloped page as a roof. A project like this is ALL ABOUT the DETAILS so please bear with me as I share an extended explanation of my project with you.

Stamps used:

Squiggly Ink: Flora and Fauna 3

and

Squiggly Ink: Flora and Fauna 4

I painted the base with the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in Claret {a lovely cranberry red}; then layered the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze with Sherbet over the top {I love these paints and this Crackle Glaze - thanks Leandra for the amazing crackle demo video}.

I TOTALLY LOVE THIS STUFF! Depending how you apply paint on top of this crackle glaze, you get large cracks or smaller cracks - that look really organic from natural weathering of paint and not so much painted on.

And the crackling on my teeny wooden spools ended up in proportion to the size of the spools... a fabulous surprise!

I gave a light rubbing of Walnut Stain Distress Ink and a wet brush to antique the bright pink down to go along with the rest of my color palette.

The distressed flowers are the roof die-cut distressed flowers cut from stamped muslin, dabbed with watered down fresco paints from the roof. The vintage handle detail is a resin piece I created - I made a mold using Amazing Mold Putty and cast in Amazing Clear Cast Resin, Brown Alumilite Dye and Alumilite Gold Metallic Powders. 

The base of the house is a recycled holiday card box covered in a recycled woodgrain brown packing paper. It was perfect for covering the silver snowflake box. I made sure to even use a recycled soda can tab as a hanger attached with a decorative brad with a bird on it.

The center of the box background is a scrap of BoBunny patterned paper that matched my color palette perfectly; overstamped with leaf foliage using Timber Brown Staz-On ink. Now for the details...

I stamped flowers onto recycled sewing patterns, hand-cut and layered to make my giant whimsy sunflowers. Mini wooden spools painted same as the roof serve as flower pots; and fiber covered chenille stems make these blooms spring to life.

I finished off this garden by creating a pennant banner using the teeny tags. They had a wine colored thread so I tied a bunch of them together and filled them in with some inspiring words using Walnut Stain Distress Marker. 

I want to say thank-you to Leandra from Paper Artsy for hosting this challenge and for inviting this girl from across the pond to play along and inspire. Please take some time and see all the wonderful work by fans of Paper Artsy on the Paper Artsy Blog HERE. I can't wait to see what's coming up tomorrow! :) Sb