I started by taking one of the pieces of 1/4" plywood that was left over from the drawers that we had redone for the built-ins in the 2 bedrooms we recently renovated. (I did manage to get a sewing room out of the deal but it was a lot of work.)
Anyways... once I nailed on some small pieces to the 4 sides I ended up with what looked like a covered canvas. I then covered the whole board with vintage book pages and then whitewashed it with watered down white acrylic paint. I pulled out my stash of stencils and got busy adding some different patterns. It was then a matter of fussing with various elements that I had cut out or found until I got an arrangement I liked.
The butterfly is printed from my computer and the wisteria is from an old gardening book I had. The scrolly heart pattern in the lower right hand corner is a stencil I have that I traced onto watercolor paper. I sprayed it with Lindy's Starburst sprays and then hand cut the bugger. (It took me a couple of hours to cut it and several days for my hand to uncramp.) The scrolled circle behind the butterfly and the fern leaves are chipboard pieces that I had and painted with metallic paint. The cardboard piece at the bottom left is painted with Sophisticated Finishes in Old Gold and then sprayed with Patina Green. (I tore part of the top layer off to reveal the corrugated part.) I then attached some pieces of crumpled Angelina film with matt medium and hit it with a heat gun. (It reacts to heat and does all this crazy cool shrinking and shriveling.) I then added a bunch of alarm clock gears, a pocket watch along with some clock springs, some broken beach glass and paper flowers.
The only thing that bothers me is when I showed it to my husband he said it looked "very victorian" and was in my "typical" style. I never thought I really had a particular style since I am always trying different things but I am always around it so it makes it hard to tell. I don't care what he thinks... I like it and it's what I wanted and it's going up in the cabin.
