Secrets in the Garden ..

At last, we have a had few nice spring days and the sun has decided to come and join us.  A bit of gardening, tidying  up, trimming back and discovering things that had been hidden for a while.

My secret garden hanging started life as a flap from an old delivery box. I cut one of the flaps down to be just shy of  a 7" x 5' canvas board then started to pick away at some the edges to reveal some corrugated areas. This creates some texture and interest to the piece. I coated the edges with a little bit of PaperArtsy hey pesto, holly and smidge of snowflake, not too much - just enough to give a 'white-washed' look.

I used a really old foam script stamp - had it for ages, can't quite remember where it came from and used caramel archival ink to create some contrast against the greens.

Thank you to Lin Brown once again. I coloured up some of the flower stamps with pacific blue and red bus - straight onto grunge paper. Same with some of the leaf stems, keeping with Hey Pesto and Holly dabbed here and there to give some dimension, again straight on to grunge paper. Oh its worth mentioning that I used the smooth side of the grunge paper for this project, it seemed to stamp better with the acrylic paints. But both sides can be used - its up to you. 

I then cut the leaves and the flowers out and arranged then on the painted corrugated board. I didn't add anymore paint as I really liked 'the grunginess' of the look (is that a word?) 'tis now!

A few more elements: twirly paper covered wire, metal lock and key element and painted wooden letters  all play their part in my secret garden hanging.

It was easy to glue the decorated card to the Hey Pesto painted canvas with cosmic glue and a  twisted handle from a carrier bag does a perfect job as a hanger.

Guess my secret garden isn't a secret any more ..............

Happy Secrets .......
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