Quite Contrary.....

       Hi everyone! Welcome back! Hope you had a wonderful sunny weekend?

Today is a special treat for me - being a guest designer for the first time! Over at Country View Crafts challenge blog, the challenge is "How does your garden grow?"

     When I was told the challenge, the first thing that sprung to mind was the old nursery rhyme...

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

So this was where I headed for the challenge....combining the elements of the rhyme. There had to be flowers of course, and of course it fitted in with my love of vintage. Certainly as this, like all nursery rhymes have been around for generations (in one form or another)

I had a lovely paper mache wall hanging constructed of three circle frames attached to twine...and I had been waiting for something to come along that would be perfect...I had considered tags, canvases, etc....but this would work really well....

 I had some shells - Ok, we are stretching the imagination to say they are cockleshells, but they are actual shells. I didn't have silver bells....and where were the pretty maids? Lets find out......

With the title of the challenge being 'Garden' based I couldn't resist taking photos of this outside on a gloriously bright sunny day.....

First I covered the frames with Antique Linen Distress Paint....then I got a flower print background Stamp and applied Bundled Sage DP to it and pressed it onto the frame...sadly the pictures don't do it justice as the Bundled Sage paint is very pale, so it looks quite indistinct in the bright sunlight....

I selected some lovely print images to be framed in the circles - so there were the 'pretty maids'. I blended Frayed Burlap DI around the edges of the prints and attached music paper into the frames as a background.

Crocheted lace was applied as a base for the other decorations...I selected some peach roses, and a die cut swirl which I covered in Frayed Burlap DI.

    The silver bells were drawn onto card, cut out and then a very thick coat of Pewter Crackle Paint was applied. After it had dried I attached a silver brad to the top. The shells completed the nursery rhyme inspired creation.

      I felt the other side of the frame needed balancing - so I covered some die cut flowers with Tattered Rose DS and put a matt gold brad in the center of each one...a leaf covered with peeled Paint DI completed the little flower arrangement and I applied them opposite the larger decoration

Hope you liked seeing my 'How does your garden grow?' creation - Why not hop over to Country View Challenges and see where this inspiring challenge leads you....How will your Garden grow?

I would like to enter the following challenges -

Fashionable Stamping Challenges -Anything Goes
Unruly Paperarts - Paper Flowers
Simon Says  - Inspired by - The nursery rhyme
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes