FWF - Garden Wall Plaque

Yesterday hubby and I went out for our usual date day, we had breakfast, morning tea and lunch all out in between doing some shopping.  On the way home we stopped at Bunning's Hardware to pick up a couple of things and whilst there we were looking at some Bamboo Flooring which we have in mind to lay in part of our home, when I spotted their laminate flooring samples which were available to purchase for a small cost.

These  samples are a light weight piece of laminate measuring approx 19.5cm x 36cm and which have a hole at the top perfect for hanging on a hook.

I grabbed a handful thinking these would make great wall hangings.  

So last night I couldn't resist having a play.

Laminate Flooring is somewhat scratch resistant so trying to sand with sandpaper is useless so I reached for my Gesso and gave it a light coating and then immediately started gluing all sorts of paper over it, book pages, tissue paper, scrap bits of green toned papers and then in between any gaps I took my green toned gelatos and scribbled into the spaces.  I wet brushed this in and then took more white and green tissue paper and layered over the top to tone down the background.

My flower, vine leaves were both stamps from a recent Unity Grab Bag I received and the Butterflies are from the Unity January 2012 Kit of the Month.

My flowers and vines were stamped on book pages, tissue paper and directly to the panel.  I used some punchinella and white and green paint to add interest as well as some stamping with a smaller black flower stamp.  My Butterflies and quote are stamped onto copy paper cut out and stuck down, colored with Gelatos and I have highlighted my butterfly with a Metallic Letraset Marker.  This quote is one of my favorites which I thought would be perfect for a Garden Wall Hanging.  I have this on a stamp also, but as it is small, I used a recently brought alphabet set to stamp the words.

For further interest and texture to the bottom half of my panel I stenciled some impasto gel medium using my Damask Stencil and buffed this lightly with some white and green gelato.  I also added one fussy cut vine which had been stamped onto a green scrap piece of paper. 

It is this type of creating that I love, getting messy and blending color around with my fingers, needless to say that when I was called to dinner I had to wash my hands for about five minutes and still haven't got it all off.

I hope you all have a great weekend and thanks so much for stopping by.

I am linking this project up with the following challenges:-

Unity Stamp Co - Friends with Flair

Design Memory Craft - August Challenge - Words to Live By

Crafting with Dragonflies - #8 Alter Something

Flutter By Wednesdays - #247 (Must have a butterfly or fairy)