Playing with Grunge paste

As I shared in my last post I really enjoyed some crafting time over the Easter break. This year the daffodils everywhere have just been glorious. What is there not to love about this spring flower?

There are lots of lovely spring inspired challenge in blog land at the moment I wanted to join in with. Also the ladies over at A Vintage Journey's theme is Through the looking glass.  Lastly the topic over at Paperartsy until Sunday is to play with Grunge paste (or any other texture paste) so I decided to combine these great challenges and had a think about what I would make.
Inspired the the daffs I decided to make a floral get well card for a young lady we know who was involved in a recent car crash and I thought that something really bright and spring like would made her smile.
I spread some Grunge paste over some card and stamped into it with my favourite script stamp, Bronte script, by Visible Image.

Next I got out some of my chalks paints and started adding some yellow.

I also added some blue and of course I created green.

I wanted to make a floral focal so I used an off cut of an acrylic master board I made a while back and added some Grunge paste through a stencil. You may recognise the offcut from this card here Recently Tim Holtz has been exploring his floral side and made a great long flower stem stamped tag for April. I made his tag recently (as a card) so I decided to try using a stencil rather than a stamp for this project.

First I coloured the Grunge paste green and made the stalks and then I added some yellow for the flower heads.

I found some little beads in my jewellery stash to push into the paste

 I wanted to add some yellow pearls but I don't have any so I just coloured white ones with my alcohol inks, Tim Holtz gave this tip a while back and he also colours brads this way. These were to make the stamens.

I wanted the flowers to look as though they had been preserved under glass, similar to those in those found in Victorian glass domes so I added some Glossy Accents. I distressed the edges of the card.

here is the finished focal...really glassy and shiney.

I also altered a T Holtz metal flower with chalk paint and purposefully held the heat gun close to make the paint blister...I love this effect

Then it was time to assemble my card...here it is

and a few close up.....lots of texture going on here

I would like to enter my card into the following great challenges;

PaperArtsy Grunge paste Topic #6. I was inspired by Kate's post of her textured bloom showing her colouring Grunge paste and also Leandra's introduction post sharing how you  can stamp into the paste and embed things into it.
A Vintage Journey Through the looking glass my flower heads with the added Glossy accents make them look as though they have been preserved forever in glass. It also gives a reflection so it is also a pun on "through the looking glass".
Art with heart spring break
Not just cards anything goes
That Craft Place easter/spring
Crafting from the heart anything goes
Creative Inspirations A trio of something I have a trio of glassy flower heads I also have a trio of colours; yellow, blue and green
Noor! anything goes
The Artistic stamper flora and fauna
Papertake weekly anything goes
Loves rubberstamps anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays anything goes
Simon says stamp Mondays A is for... altered, I have altered the metal flower and grunge paste by colouring it and stamping into it.
Stamp and Create anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday April showers and/or Spring flowers

Thanks for stopping by and I would also like to say hello to my latest followers, you are are most welcome here and I am so pleased you have joined my on my creative journey. Thanks to all my "regular" visitors as always for visiting and your kind comments you take the time to leave here. There's more glorious sunshine today and I am off to enjoy it. I have nearly finished spring cleaning my garden studio and plan to get back out there asap.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x