Stone carved garden...

Hello Friends and Crafters…

Welcome to my page today. It’s a beautiful weather in Bangalore right now with the summer showers starting in the evenings and the temperature has really come down! I love rains, the smell of the wet ground, the shiny wet greenery and the water droplets settling on the leaves and flowers. My perfect “muse” for altered projects, lol!

I have my kitchen renovation going on and a midst all the mess and dust at home, couldn't help but do this project on a rainy day!

I created a faux stone niche here and then played around decorating it with flowers and foliage to give the look of a stone garden!

So here we start…

I first created texture for the niche with tissue paper and then gessoed it. Took out my paper Artsy stencil and Prima stencil to create textures and as the texture paste was dry, sprinkled some fine white sand. I left it to dry naturally…yes one of those patient days from me. Thanks to the rains…I was in a good mood!

Once the texture was dry, I rubbed in Prima chalk edger, Tin Can all around and slightly darker around the edges. Gave it some time to dry and then gave 2 generous coats of multi medium, gloss. Finally some color splats in black brown acrylic colors with a tooth brush and voila my faux stone nice is ready!

I gave some filler inside the niche with waste cardboard and then finally a strip from Prima Sunrise Sunset paper pack..I love the evening colors here with the effect of water spritzed here, perfect for a rainy back drop!

My stone niche is now ready to take the alteration and out comes all my hand made embellishments!

The  Vintage lamp post is a CLD die cut and I antiqued it with some gesso and then some blue inks and then again a dry wash of gesso and finally a few coats of multi medium.

I covered the niche half way with a lovely chipboard gate from Creative Embellishment…colored it white and then some brushed pewter and walnut stain DS.

The leaves are all from CLD Tropical leaves die, all edged with DI. The flowers are using TH tattered florals die, I have inked them with mustard seed, aged mahogany and worn lipstick DI and then sprit zed water, scrunched them and then layered them. Blame it on the bright colors in my garden right now after the rains, and I just replicated the flowers I saw there.

I couldn't resist using my favorite coconut coir to make a handmade nest for the little bird but looks like the birdie is having a day out in the rains! Happily perched on the gate, admiring the lovely outdoor weather…another scene out of my garden, today! How I wish I could just sit like that…are you imagining me sitting on the gate, lol!

I had to bring in the butterflies now…my favorites in the garden, By now my little garden was brimming with colors and so I decided to make the butterflies in a neutral shade and of course my Vintage flavor has to take over, right?

I die cut the big Monarch Butterfly using text paper and Precision paper cutting die. It is 3 layered, the bottom 2 are just text paper where as the top layer is dipped in UTEE. Oh boy! I just loved this vintage beauty when it was layered up to show its majestic flight in action and yes, it deserved to be embellished with some pearls on the body and some dull gold pollens as antennae! My Vintage Winged beauty in all its grandeur!

The smaller butterfly is using Itsy Bitsy die and text paper and yes, dipped in UTEE and some pearls for this one too! A perfect match to its senior, lol!

Now, with rains in the background and my inspiration, I had to have that on my project! I created droplets with glossy accents all settled here and there on the stone niche, flowers, lamp post  and leaves. A little difficult to capture it on the already glossy stone!

With such a beauty in my hand, I had to have the sentiment that reflects the scene…and yes, I just found the one from my new Kaiser Craft set.

This ones to all of you who are visiting my page today..LIVE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE!

That brings you to the end of my stone garden only to tell you that my niche stands on its own feet too! I have used white flat back pebbles as feet which gives it a strong foundation to stand on, lol!

And before we leave, you ought to see what I have altered here…

The stone niche was made out of an empty perfume carton! 

A generous donor…who gave it to me…only the carton and not the perfume, lol! But yes, to me this carton is more precious than the perfume and I thank my friend, Tony who always collects some lovely trash for me and drives miles to come home and give me bags and bags of my TRASHURE…that’s  TRASH and TREASURE together, lol!

Hope you enjoyed you stay in my stone garden and thanks for taking the time to be here.

I would like to enter my “stone garden” in the following challenges…

CreativeMoments – Ag/ Spring or Easter

Rubber dance Art Stamps- color prompt(rose pink, dusky grey, powder blue)

Red Rubberinspirational- Make a fuss

Mod SquadChallenge Blog- color wheel(blue, grey, pink, greens and yellow)

CreataliciousChallenge -  Embossing ( have used UTEE)

Fan –TasticTuesday –AG with a twist of pearls

Un Rulypaper Arts –Animal Instincts

InspirationJournal- AG

Mixed MediaMonthly Challenge – April showers

Simon MondayChallenge – In the middle (the faux stone niche with the lovely Prima sunrise sunset paper depicting the evening sky!)

Jo’s ScrapShack- florals and butterflies

Make MyMonday – April Showers
That Craft Place - Alter something
Open Minded Crafting Challenge - re cycle something ( have used a perfume carton, tissue paper from packaging and old text papers from a book)

Until my next Creative Journey,

Happy Crafting and Re cycling,

Cheers.