Tic Tac Toe ~ New Challenge for Stamps and Stencils

Hi everybody! It's my turn to host the July challenge over at the Stamps and Stencils blog. I've chosen to do a Tic Tac Toe.  My teamies have done me very proud with some fantastic art work, based on their selections from the grid.

I've made this assemblage piece using elements from the top row of the grid, flowers, corrugated card and lace.I started off by peeling back some of the smooth surface of the cardboard to reveal the texture. I painted the surface with gesso and stenciled some vertical lines using modelling paste through one of Tim Holtz's layering stencils.

I then adhered a piece of textured lace with matte medium and a selection of metal,  plastic and lace flowers. I used a hot glue gun to attach these pieces.

and........

I then painted everything with a couple of coats of gesso. Once this was dry, I added several thin washes of colour, allowing it to drip and pool in the texture. I used deco art Media Fluid in Prussian Blue

Left this to dry thoroughly, and then used a stiff brush with white gesso to dry brush the surface. This really enhances the detail of the different textures.

The crackled photo frame, is the underside of a small canvas. I applied Deco Art Crackle paste over the surface, and rubbed some Antiquing Fluid into the cracks once  the Crackle Paste was dry.

This is a photo boothe picture of me and my Auntie Sue, I think I was about 14 or 15 at the time. I used my mum's old typewriter to type out the phrase, which is something that stuck in my head after listening to Adele on the TV. It is perfect for the reflective mood I find myself in, as I am on the verge of retiring after teaching, on and off, for the last 40 years. Ha ha ! bring on the next chapter !

If you fancy a bit of playtime with a game of crafty Tic Tac Toe, hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog and you'll find all the details of the challenge, as well as some fantastic inspiration from our multi talented design team.