NysBiz: Time to Live - Imagine If Design Team Project

Welcome back to our newest blog hop. I really hope you are enjoying the projects that Jo and the wonderful team of ladies have been bringing you.

Our blog hop begins as usual at Jo's Blog at Imagine If and you can follow on from there or you can check out Carol's creation and work backwards from there or you can jump to Brenda's project and follow on through the rest of the blogs. Again this week there is a prize made up of 2 packets of Jo's amazing felt flowers. These flowers are so versatile they can be used as embellishments or they can be shaped into beautiful 3D flowers. (see my post How Does My Garden Grow).

On to this weeks project:

A little less dark than some of my latest projects, but that is the great thing about Imagine If's products there is something for every style of crafting.

When my kit arrived for this month I found all of these gorgeous goodies. Isn't the clock just stunning. It would look great on a 12x12 scrapbook layout but that is not the road I wanted to take.

The windows above come in two pieces, the frame itself and a backing sheet measuring 12"x12". Both are made from MDF. I wanted to use the clock and I wanted to use the frames. My first thought was to hinge the MDF and make a layout book, but I had already done that on my last project It's All About Olley. This could be made into a similar book so easily but I digress. I thought about putting photos in the frames which would also have been a great idea, but I wanted to incorporate the clock and I wanted it to be seen so I decided not to add in photos. I wanted to use all of the elements shown above and I wanted the project to have some depth and I wanted to showcase the clock. So here is what I decided to do. I painted the chipboard clock with caramel paint, then I added a layer of crackle medium and when that was ready I sponged on raw umber paint to give the aged rusty look.

While the clock was drying I modgepoged a sheet of K and Company Daffodil Glitter Paper on to the sheet of MDF. Just a tip when modgepodging or glueing paper onto another surface, using your paintbrush put the medium all over the back of the paper first using a crosshatch pattern, this stretches the paper slightly, then apply medium thinly to the other surface and apply the paper working out air bubbles using a cloth (a bit like wallpapering) or a roller. This prevents air bubbles and creases that can occur when putting a dry surface on to a wet surface.

The next step was to paint the MD frame with yellow ochre paint and when that was dry I again used the crackle medium and a top coat of green acrylic paint, sponged on to give a softer look to the finished crackled effect. I sealed the clock and the frame with a mineral sealer. If you try to seal crackled paint with a water based sealer it will cause all of your crackles to disappear. I painted the birdcage the same way using raw umber and warm white paint. The trellis I cut into two pieces and painted with the caramel paint and finished off with raw umber dry brushed over the top to give it a more rustic look.

I then began to assemble the pieces on the frame. I didn't want the pieces just sitting flat so I bent the birdcage so that is curved out over the frame. The beauty of the chipboard that Jo uses to make her pieces is that it is strong enough to manipulate in this manner.

I then kept adding elements until I was happy with the overall look. I glued the frame to the backing and then added the other elements on top of the frame to get the 3D effect I wanted. I diecut what felt like hundreds of leaves, sprayed them with ink and then screwed them up while wet then let them dry a minute and opened them out to give a more realistic effect. I glued these to bare branches, also a diecut and added small diecut flowers in the same tones as the backing paper. I extended the sign so it reached to the top of the frame and I added red dyed baby muslin to the bullrush heads to give a more organic touch.The signpost and fence I painted with black paint and then drybrushed silver over the top. The little dragonfly is a chipboard piece from Imagine If and the ladybirds are diecuts. I also curved the fence lightly before glueing it in place.