Experimental paste

Over at the Craft Barn the words for the quote challenge are Destiny & Gift and I have chosen my quote first, "Control your own destiny or someone else will", with no consideration to what I could or couldn't represent...
Well, after long searches in my stash and many brain storming sessions, nothing came up... Serendipitously though, the end result shows how little control I had over the design!

I turned to the Paper Artsy blog for inspiration and combined ideas from 2 Paper Artsy creations, a canvas by Gillian and a folder by Julie Ann, both using Sara Naumann stamps which I am a bit (OK a lot) partial to.

I used cardboard as it featured in both makes, and initially, followed Gillian's first layers. I didn't like the result so I tried to emulate Julie Ann's background adding the Quatrefoil motif die-cut and some stencilled areas as per Gillian's make. For stencilling paste I made a mix from sand texture, yellow micro beads and pink glitter (you've got Prima to thank for that idea). To that, I added texture paste to give it some opacity against my dark background. With hindsight blue or pink micro beads would have been better!

All stamps used are from ESN10 and I used paints with them. Quite impressed on how the script, which is very delicate, came out. I have delegated the elegant script to my printer as I wanted it smaller than usual.

I felt it was missing something and I considered melted gold wax drippings but chickened out, opting for white paint splatters instead. Treasure gold would look lovely too especially on the textured dots.

Thanks for coming by,