Captured Memories At Our Creative Corner. . . . . New Challenge Starts Today.

We had some beautiful entries for our last challenge which was a Recipe concocted by Buttons. Our new challenge goes live today and this time the talented Linda aka The Funkie Junkie is your host.

Linda is asking everyone to use the theme 'Memories' for the month of July. This gives lots of scope for the type of project you produce which could be a layout, card, wall piece, tag, 3D art, the list could go on and on!

There is one rule for the product you make: it must use a real photograph. Not sure of the other rules for the challenge at Our Creative Corner? Click here and you can find a short set of rules which we ask you to remember when you play with us.

Please remember to pop over and see the wonderful creations made by my Teamies. Halfway through the month, the second team will post yet more inspiration for you so don't forget to pop over then too!

For my piece this time, I have made a piece of wall art using a family photograph. I did cheat slightly because I only have photographs of the originals so I printed one off onto photographic paper.

I've used a picture of my paternal Grandmother when she was aged approx. 19. If you click here, you will see the childhood image I used of my Grandmother in a previous post. The photos I have are a wonderful record of my Grandmother's life from childhood, through to becoming a young woman, bride and mother to three children. A very special memory for our family.

I should warn you that there are a number of photographs because I've shown the making of my product in more detail this time. Grab a coffee and let's go:

The finished piece which could be hung on the wall or given a stand and stood with other family photos.

How did I achieve this end result? Let's start with the substrate used for the base:

I found this hanging in a charity shop and thought it might be useful at some point! Originally, it had a thick white cotton cord for hanging. I've removed the cord and kept it for another time. At a glance it looks like shabby wood but it is simply a thick, rigid piece of plastic - what more can I say?!

Two coats of gesso were applied to cover the existing design. Three colours of  DecoArt Americana acrylic were then randomly applied over the surface (not blended though) and dried.A fourth toning colour of DecoArt Americana was then applied covering the random shades from the first stage. When dry, the base was sanded to reveal some areas of the first layer of colour. 

The base was then stamped with versamark using a background stamp - I made sure that the stamping was Not precise in order to give an aged worn look.  Gold and brown mica powder was then lightly brushed onto the stamped area and allowed to set. Finally, a coat of DecoArt Americana sealant spray was applied to protect the surface.

To make the flowers (follow images from left to right), I painted card with the same colours used on the base - I've only shown two here as the rest were already cut up!
Flower shapes were die cut. Each die cut was stamped with a script image and versamark. Gold mica powder was then applied.
DecoArt Two Step Crackle medium was then applied according to the instructions. Raw umber Traditions paint was applied to the crackle when dry and wiped back with a baby wipe leaving the colour only in the crevices.
The flowers were then assembled in various combinations of shape, size and colour.

In the centre of each flower, a 'distressed' brad was used to hold the layers together. The distressing was done with various DecoArt acrylics and a small swipe of their gold Metallic Lustre.

Images of the three remaining flowers are shown below:

The frame for the photograph was cut from Amazon packaging - so useful! Various layers were cut until I achieved the look I wanted.

The top layer of the frame was embossed and coated with gesso. This was followed by two layers of DecoArt Traditions acrylic. Some gold DecoArt Metallic Lustre was roughly applied to the raised areas followed by some sepia archival ink to age the frame.

Two flourishes were die cut from the same Amazon packaging as before. Each went through the same process as the frame to achieve the aged appearance,

The flourishes were used to help 'frame' the flowers.

I was quite pleased with how the background turned out, particularly the stamped image which shows up much better than I could have hoped. 

The final touch was to add coffee archival ink to the edges of the base just to complete the aged look.

If you got down to the bottom, thank you so much for sticking with me! I really enjoyed making this piece but when I showed it to my Husband he said  'it's far too girlie and peach coloured'. Can't win really can you??!!