The Not Advent Calendar

THE NOT ADVENT CALENDAR

Hi All!

This project was meant to be an advent calendar but then became a mantle decoration mainly because of a mistake and then because I thought putting numbers on it would spoil it. 

This project started as a playtime with my friend Carol Fox and the lovely Mandy Chilvers....the idea being we would make the calander. Firstly a huge thank you to Carol and Mandy for all the die cutting they did before I arrived.....it was a lot!!!

Be warned this might be rather long as I am doing this blog for a friend who could not make the day. Also I have an early Christmas gift so I am full of drugs....sounds more risque than  Night Nurse doesn't it? Yep I met the secret santa cold giver...woohoo!!

To begin....are you sitting comfortably?....

Stuff needed...

Die cut arches....used Tim Holtz/Sizzix gothic arches. How many you need depends on how long you want it to be....no smutty jokes!!.....see Night Nurse is fab!!....sorry now on Lemsip.

Modelling paste

Gesso

Matt medium

Tyvek...or an alternative

Paper scraps and washi tape

Paint...I used Decoart fluid acrylics and Pebeo dyna acrylic: decoart colours used were gold, primary cyan, ultramarine blue, dioxazine purple, primary magenta, phthalo green-yellow and interference violet and Pebeo studio acrylic dyna range in irridescent blue/green.

Archival black ink

Cosmic shimmer glue

Stencils byThat's Crafty and Joggles

Stamps by PaperArtsy and Andy Skinner

Images ...I used icon images

Here we go...

So firstly gessoed all the arches. Once the gesso was dry I added torn pieces of vintage papers and washi tape randomly over the arches using matt medium to adhere them.

While the arches were drying I used strips of tyvek to attach the back arches together. I then painted the tyvek and around the front edges of the arches as these would be covered by the images and framing arches so it would be a waste of paint to do the whole area.

This was when I realised my mistake. The initial idea was that there would be twelve arches on each side...I did not leave enough room between each arch to be able to fold it  all together so it became a decoration instead.

When the arches were dry applied modelling paste through a couple of mini stencils by That's Crafty which are brilliant for smaller projects....I used a Moroccan style one and a starry one but the choice is yours. When this was dry I applied a variety of paint randomly over the arches. I used the Decoart ultramarine blue on the tyvek hinges. I used my fingers to apply the paint. Also the Decoart paints have a translucency that I really like and I didn't want to cover up the vintage papers.

When this layer of paint was dry I then added some Pebeo dyna acrylic in  iridescent blue/green and then some Decoart interference paint in violet.

When this was dry I then stamped some text on the arches using Archival black ink. I used one of my favourite stamps for this... a Paperartsy mini text. It is a fab background stamp and its been hard used with paints, inks, bleach and still going strong! Next, using a joggles stencil, I applied Decoart gold paint to the arches after which I used an Andy Skinner texture stamp, which I love, to stamp some more gold paint over the piece.

Using Cosmic Shimmer glue I attached the icon images to the arch surrounds and glued these onto the backing arches. When the glue was dry I edged the whole piece with gold paint. 

Finally I attached some ribbon to each end of the piece and the arch covers. Finished!!!!

FYI most of the products I used I purchased from That's Crafty and I tend to use a lot of recycled stuff so the card used for the arches was a large sheet of waste card from a fish market....thankfully not smelly....well the cats didn't take any more interest in what I was doing than usual....zero!!

If you've still here....thank you muchly and happy messiness to you all xxxxx

Tricia