ALL SQUARE AT THAT'S CRAFTY

It's challenge time again at That's Crafty and the theme is All Square. I knew I wanted to create a cracked ceramic tile effect for this so That's Crafty Surfaces and Dinky Stencils were my first port of call.

I've used one of their 6x6 MDF panels for my project, and I punched a hole in the top with my Crop-A-Dile so I can hang it near my craft desk.

I wanted the background to be a fairly prominent feature so I've employed a simple colour trick and made the butterfly tone with the background rather than stand out. That way you still have a focal image but your eye is actually drawn across the whole piece rather than straight to one element.

I used DecoArt Crackle Paste through one of my favourite Dinky Stencils; the Grid Background.
When the crackle paste was dry I sprayed it with DecoArt Media Misters in Turquoise, Green and Yellow. They work beautifully with the crackle paste and you get a lovely sheen like a ceramic tile. Once dry, I dripped some White Media Mister and some more of the Yellow Media Mister over the top and dried with a heat gun.

I then used a Ranger watermark ink pad just roughly dabbed around the edges to adhere some Ranger sticky embossing powder and heated with my heatgun to activate the glue. I dipped the board into some Gilding Flakes and I love they way they look around the edge of the piece.

Still very much in love with Dina Wakely's Scribbly Insects so out came one of the lovely butterflies again. I sprayed some PaperArtsy Smoothy Card with the Green and Yellow DecoArt Media Misters and added a little detail with my Pitt pens. A tiny bit more gold on the butterfly just to continue the theme and pull everything together.

I do love words and these little Chit Chat Stickers by Tim Holtz are just the ticket,so I added a nice inspirational phrase.You will have noticed that I like to add a bit of dimension to these by adding a slick of glossy accents over the top. It just gives them in a bit more clout.

Well that's me folks. Pop over to That's Crafty's Challenge Blog and check out the amazing inspiration from the Design Team.

Don't forget there's a £20 prize for one lucky winner picked at random, so why not join in the fun.

Lx