Vintage Garden for Anything But Cute!

I am very happy, thrilled even, to share my first piece as a Design Team Member for Anything But Cute! Our hostess for our very first challenge is the amazing Branka and her theme for this month is Vintage Garden!

What do you think of when you hear the word Garden? Is it flowers, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, lattice, vines, fences? Whatever garden vision you have, we want to see it. But make sure it's in a vintage style.You can make anything mixed media that follows this theme. When I think of a Vintage Garden, my mind automatically went to soft colors and lots of wonderful birds singing, and flowers. Any type of garden inspires me because I do not have a green thumb at all and have mad respect for anyone that can keep any plant alive!

I must admit that anything Vintage or Shabby Chic are my weak points when it comes to doing mixed media. Thankfully I have a wonderfully supportive team and they provided lots of inspiration! Make sure to check out their creations as well! 

I found this blog post by Olga Heldwein, and had that duh moment of, "why didn't I try this?"  I used her Dry Brush technique which you can find HERE, to create my background. First I applied Gesso, some number stickers, and my texture paste through a stencil and then used my chalk ink to "paint" the color onto my canvas. I used a script stamp with Archival ink lightly around the canvas. 

I painted and smeared the chalk ink with my fingers then added white acrylic paint over some spots to create a more cohesive soft look. 

I then started adding my elements. I try to place everything where I think it will go and then add in the paints, and other design ideas. The cheesecloth adds just the right amount of extra texture I needed. Whew! My birds nest was brown to start with so I whitewashed it with watered down white acrylic paint and gesso.

I painted and used gesso on all the pieces and the Inspire chippie is embossed with LSG embossing powder-Merci Beaucoup Mint. My flowers were edged with Color Box pigment ink. The die cuts are from a TH die-Spring Greenery. 

I made the eggs with polymer clay and sprayed those with LSG Jack In the Pulpit Teal! Love this color and the shimmer is amazing!

Lastly I added some small button type stickers that are garden themed and some more cheesecloth. 

I would love to share this project with the following wonderful challenge blogs:

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #12-May Flowers

Our Creative Corner-April Showers Bring May Flowers In my neck of the woods we have very little flowers growing right now but I plan on planting some rose bushes in my front yard at the new house this month. :)

Beyond Grey Challenges #68-Make Your Own Embellishments I love using polymer clay in my projects and the eggs in the nest are my polymer clay embellishment creations.

Mixed Media Mojo-Tic-Tac-Toe Board I chose the middle row with Gesso, Stencil, and Chipboard

Craft Your Passion #260-Anything Goes