A little bit more Tic Tac Toe !

Hello ! It's Sue here to share an Inspirational Post with you today and I decided to choose another line from the Tic Tac Toe grid for the current challenge. Just to refresh your memory this is what the grid looks like:

Having already used the middle horizontal line I decided go diagonally for this project and use an image, circles (lots of them!) and some lace.

 I made this journal some time ago and have not completed anything in it and as it's A3, when it's a double spread, I thought this would be a good size to go mad with circles ! After the initial base layer of Gesso I've used a Donna Downey stencil and stencilled all of the circles with Stone Fresco Finish paint.

 I then started to fill in some of the circles, my initial thought was to just do a select few, but ....

Once I got started I got carried away ! I've used Fresco Finish paints for all of the stencilled circles. 

 Blending the different shades in the colour families. For the small circles I've just stencilled with one colour but made sure they bump into neighbouring colours.

I then took a baby wipe and some Tikka Fresco Finish paint and wiped it over the whole spread. This gets rid of any white that's left and also blends all of the colours together.

I was tempted to leave it there as I loved the effect of all the circles, but I decided to knock some of them back using Gesso, spreading it over the pages with my finger. I did some stencilling on the opposite corners then took the gold Slick Stix and drew roughly around the opposite corners and a little down the centre then blended the colour out using a baby wipe.

 More stencilling, but keeping the centre area clear.

I wanted to bring some of the circles through from the background to the foreground so mixed some Whipped Spackle with Chocolate Pudding Fresco Finish paint, replaced the Donna Downey stencil and lined it up with the original stencilled circles. I then spread the Whipped Spackle mix over the stencil. Some stamping was done using a Tim Holtz stamp and second generation stamping, then using a Tim Holtz script stamp I did some white embossing.

 To frame the pages a little more I used a brown Slick Stix and again scribbled around the edges and a little in the centre and blended the colour using a baby wipe. 

The sentiment I've used is by Yvonne Blair and it fitted perfectly into this large circle ! The small buttlerflies are by Prima and I've painted them with Fresco Finish paints. 

 For my image, I started by covering a piece of mountboard with Tim Holtz tissue wrap, covering it with Glue 'n' Seal and while it was still wet sprinkling Infusions over the top. I spritzed lightly with water then dried it off.

The image itself is a Tim Holtz stamp, stamped with black Archival onto the Infusions piece then cut out. I also stamped the butterfly directly onto the page as the anttenae are impossible to cut out, I then glued the butterfly over the top. I've used a black Stabilo pencil to draw around the butterfly and with a damp paint brush blend it out to create a shadow and also a dribble down the page. I've also used the Stabilo pencil to draw around some of the larger circles them blended it out and to finish them added some white dots using a white Sharpie pen.

For the lace option I've used a small piece to mount the second little butterfly onto.  

If you've made it to the end you now deserve your cuppa ! This is the finished page and I really love it, I hope you do to !

You still have plenty of time to play Tic Tac Toe with us and I hope today's project has provided a little bit mor inspiration.