It's a fair swap!

My lovely sister offered to make me some bunting for Freya's Mad Hatter's birthday party and in return asked for me to decorate a word similar to what I did here. How can a girl refuse such an offer (and I'm glad I didn't as the bunting was beautiful!) As this word is 'garden' I was aiming to include a little of the garden in the 

embellishments and one was was to try and make it look a little weathered. I painted the word in PaperArtsy Old Gold paint, waited impatiently for it to dry, painted a layer of PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze, waiting impatiently again (ok, waited with a heat gun in my hand!) and then painted PaperArtsy's Guacamole over 

the top (and edges). If you haven't tried the Crackle Glaze, you really should - it works so quickly that by the time I was painting the 'r' the 'g' was already cracked! Then it was just down to adding bits and pieces. My sister is the 'queen' of gardening in our family so a crown was essential! I used some of Tim's Foliage flowers 

covered in Paint Dabbers (Snow Cap, Citrus, Silver) and PaperArsty Butternut paint. The small flower was tied on with garden twine and had been painted with Pink Sherbet Alcohol Ink and the bird is coloured with Lettuce Alcohol Ink. The butterfly was punched out from acetate with a Stampin' Up punch and stamp in Black

 Archival Ink and lettuce Alcohol Ink. The bees are an old favourite stamp which I painted the wings with misted Broken China Distress Ink and Butternut paint. As I did stamp on the word I am sneakily adding this make to the Sunday Stamper challenge this week which is 'Words'. I hope my sister likes her return thank you for my bunting! Gabrielle x

Apologies that the photos don't show the colour and crackles well - it's been unseasonably bright, hot and sunny today and there was nowhere in the garden in shade!