Laugh and Live More!

Hi Julia back again. 

I have the greatest pleasure today to introduce our Guest Designer. She is a lady I have known and admired for some time: the lovely Alison Hall or Craftytrog (LOVE that name!).

Alison's art is vivacious, fun, beautiful and if I had to describe Alison, I would use those three words about her personality too. She produces the most gorgeous jewellery and her artistic talents span many genres and mediums.  I spent a year doing a mixed media course with Alison and she is fun to be with and inspirational in what she produces. Over to you Alison:

Hi, Alison (Craftytrog) here! I would like to thank my good friend Julia for inviting me to be her guest designer in February. Julia has chosen a great theme for this month...

TIC TAC TOE

For this challenge please choose one line from the grid shown. This can be a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line but you must select the middle square as one of your choices. What you make is your choice but please ensure that the three items you have chosen are clearly visible on your make. Please state in your post which line you have chosen. Inks, stains, sprays etc can be used as necessary on your project.

I absolutely adore paint, so that was definitely going to be in the line that I chose, so therefore I have used stamps and stencils also

I started by painting a PaperArtsy Grey/White board with Eggplant Fresco Finish Acrylic. It's a translucent colour, so I gave it two coats. I then painted some Chalk Fresco onto a piece of bubble wrap, and pressed the board onto it, to get a mono-print.

I used a small brayer to randomly apply some further Fresco Paint colours to my board. I used Bora Bora, Spanish Mulberry, Inky Pool, and then some Eggplant around the edges.

I used a stencil brush to apply Little Black Dress Fresco through Dina Wakley's Affirmations Stencil. This is where I got carried away, and forgot to take photos! Then I painted a little Artemio wooden frame with two coats of Eggplant Fresco.

I stamped an image from PaperBag Studio's 'Laugh' sheet, cut off the words, and cut the image to fit behind the frame. I added the words to the frame, together with some tiny brads.

To finish, I glued the frame to my board, then added some silver eyelets and chain to the top.
Thank you for joining me here today. I hope that I've inspired you to give this fabulous challenge a go.

Alison xox