Finished page 3! (Not that page 3)

One week it seems like you've done nothing, the next some real progress on one project and another project finished entirely. Let's start with the cross stitch.

Page 3 is done! Not only that but you can finally see the start of a character - Beast! Only one page to go before I have to master French knots. Of course, the last page will not be started till the beginning of July, giving me a whopping six weeks to work on the Middle Earth stitch.

Now onto the next one. As I said last time, I had been working on something but it wasn't finished. Well, I finished it this morning. I started off with a white mini chest of drawers I got from Store Twenty One. They cost me £4.80. I started off by using transparent crackle texture paste and a stencil, as well as some white texture paste on the edges at the front. On one side I glued four metallic dragonflies, and on the back I glued on a cardboard piece from my stash, some beaded runners, and dotted some perfect pearls here and there. When all was dry I used black gesso to cover it all. When that was done I used some blue, green and gold mica powders, and dry brushed some gold paint. I was going for the look that it had been found submerged after a long time. The drawer fronts and doors I left black, aside from some white embossing powder patterns. I deliberately left these fuzzy to go with the underwater theme.

On the side with no dragonflies I added a clock and some cogs, and I added an ornate plate to the front. This was treated in the same way as the edges (white texture paste, black gesso, gold dry brushing) as well as using a literary journal bit and some glossy accents on the inside.

Finally, on the inside I used Madam Payraud paper as the bottom liner of the drawers, the inside door of the cupboard, and the back of the cupboard. On the back I used some white remnant rubs (a skeleton and an eye chart) and a quote charm and on the door I put a pharmacy sticker, a old style wedding picture (using a found relatives pic and a memory frame) and a pair of scissors.

I'm really pleased with this as I think it's almost got a story behind it. I went to a Titanic exhibit in Las Vegas years ago and it was the artefacts that drew me in, made me connect the tragedy with real people. I know this isn't the same thing, but knowing, or at least imagining, the story behind an item is important, especially as a writer.

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