A Vintage Journey ~ New Challenge ~ Tissue Paper.

It's time for a new challenge over at  A Vintage Journey. Our Creative Guide for this month is the wonderfully talented Astrid, and she has chosen, 'Tissue Paper'. This is what Astrid has to say.......

There are many different ways you can incorporate tissue paper into your project - create texture by scrunching it up, stain it, paint it, wax it, stamp on it, emboss on it. You could use cheap tissue from the supermarket, recycle gift wrapping tissue, or even use old dressmaking patterns. Just remember to create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

I was really excited by this challenge as I have enjoyed using tissue paper in several of my past projects, it has so much potential. My main problem was trying to decide which of the many ways I was going use it! After some deliberation, I chose to stamp on recycled packaging tissue, and then use it to decorate a ceramic plant pot. This is how I did it......

Here is the pot I used before it's makeover.  The first thing I did, was to give it a coat of white gesso. This provided a nice neutral surface for the tissue paper.  Whilst this was drying, I stamped out several sheets of plain white tissue paper, using a gorgeous bee stamp (origin unknown),  and also the fabulous #161 Ladybug stamp by Tracy Evans, for Aall and Create. I used black Versafine Ink to stamp with. 

After heat setting the ink with a hot air tool, I began tearing the tissue paper into manageable pieces, preserving some complete images of the ladybirds and bumble bees. I then applied the tissue to the pot using Mod Podge adhesive. As the tissue is quite fragile when wet, it was much easier to paint the Mod Podge onto the surface of the pot and gently smooth the tissue on top. Here is the covered pot......

 I also added a couple of bumblebees to the inside. I left the pot to dry completely and then started to apply some colour. I used Deco Art Media Fluid acrylic paint to add colour to the ladybirds and also a little colour wash in the hearts and background. Once the paint was dry, I sealed the surface with Matte Medium, left it to dry (again!), and then gave it a coat of Crackle Glaze. Once the crackles had developed I applied DecoArt Antiquing fluid and wiped it back to reveal the crackled surface....

To finish off the surface, I gave the whole pot a coat of 'dirty wash'. This is basically, a watery mixture of Paynes Grey and Quinacridone Gold. I coloured the rim of the pot with a gold paint marker, before spraying it, inside and out, with matte acrylic varnish. I then added a twist of rusty wire and a little ladybird charm. I also remembered that I had a set of travel dominoes and as the Ladybug stamp set features images of dominoes, I thought it would be fun to make a charm out of one. With that, my pot transformation was complete. Now I just need to find a suitable house plant to stand in it. I think I can feel a trip to the garden centre coming on!
 If you would like to use tissue paper in a project we would love you to share it with our Tissue Paper Challenge. Hop over to the A Vintage Journey blog with this link, and you'll find the challenge details as well as a wealth of inspiration from Astrid and the other Creative Guides. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. x