Paint And Paper

There isn't much you can't brighten up with a little paper and paint.

Paper:

As I mentioned in this post, I have a slightly obscene amount of craft stuff stashed away, most of it paper and ribbon. And while I would love to say that I have made a rule with myself not to buy any more until it is all used up, I just can't say that's true. However, I have been trying to plan ways of using it up and after the 'success' of my Easter bunting I thought I would expand my skills repertoire to include measuring. 

So I have been making some scrap book paper bunting for both grown up spaces and little person spaces.

Not wanting to waste the offcuts I also made some mini bunting to string across a window.

Paint:

Last week I had the delightful company of Mr Coco Blue for the whole seven days and one of the things we did was take a trip to a nearby stockist of Annie Sloane Chalk Paints and I happily lightened the Mr's wallet to the sound of one tin, three tester pots and a paint brush. Once the necessary CPR had been performed and he had recovered from the shock (these paints don't come cheap!) we high-tailed it home and I tried my hand at a few pieces to get a feel for the new paint.

First thing to get the chalk paint treatment was a very large old frame we had hanging about. I painted a coat of French Linen with a pretty dry brush then, once that was dried, went over again with a slightly watered down coat of Old White. I deliberately left some of the wood showing through. (Can you spot the additional decorative cat hairs in the picture above? I expect I have a cat somewhere with a smudge of paint on it!)

Using a dry brush technique to apply the paint helped to highlight the grain of the wood and so didn't need distressing, but this paint is supposed to be very good for distressing. I look forward to trying it on a few more things soon.


Coco Blue