Green Man

Our June theme at the Berkhamsted Creative Challenge is "All about the boys".

We're having a month celebrating all things masculine, in honour of Fathers Day. I thought I'd take a different approach, and pulled out a Green Man stamp I got from the Clarity stamp club last year, and have never used. (I planned to use this for the "Spring" challenge back in April but ran out of time.)

I started by stamping onto kraft card, for a natural look.

I used black archival ink. I then put distress inks onto my blending mat, in shades of green - pine needles, crushed olive, mowed lawn, old paper. With a paint brush I added a little water, then flicked each colour onto the stamped image.

Looking back at the photo, I like this effect with the splats, but for this purpose I had another plan. I fussy cut out the various leaves around the face. I stamped in olive green stazon onto another scrap of kraft card, and fussy cut that out too.

I then coated each piece with exterior mod podge, front and back, a few coats. I also coated a gorgeously shaped piece of wood I found while out on the park with Bethany -she's at the age where she collects all kinds of sticks, stones, daisies, feathers etc when we're out, I think she liked Mummy joining in.

I used 3d silicon glue to add the green pieces to the face, giving dimension, and then to attach it to the wood. A final coat of mod podge over it all, and a D ring in the back to hang it.

I had hoped to get outside to take a photo of him in a more natural setting, but the weather has not co-operated today. However, in a few days when the mod podge has fully set, our Green Man will take his place in our garden.

There are a couple of days left to enter the June challenge, then we'll have a brand new theme for you to play with on the 1st July. Come over and see what's going on.