Julie's blog

I found a picture frame in a charity shop recently – not particularly special, but I reckoned I could give it a new lease of life with a thin wash of white chalk paint, to enhance the attractive grain of the wood.

It was the perfect size for the ‘pot of flowers’ design I wanted to create from some shells collected in the Outer Hebrides last month. Harris (the largest island) has the most spectacular white sand beaches, like granulated sugar, washed with a transparent blue sea. I loved beachcombing there, and I even managed to find a piece of slate in a perfect plant-pot shape!

My first challenge was how to display everything – or rather, how best to stick the shells and slate down. I found that mixing up some cheap DIY filler did the trick, coloured an appealing shade of mint green with some lovely paint, which I mixed in with the filler, rather than painted on.

I placed the slate and shells into the filler whilst it was still wet, and left it to dry overnight. I then painted the shells with various shades of coloured paint. When that was dry, I got to work with Pinflair’s Pearl Wands, which proved ideal for embellishing the shell flowers; I also used lines of pearl dots to create the flower stalks.

The plant pot was given a thin glaze from a Pinflair Glitter Wand, and as a final touch I added various sparkly gems – I can never resist a bit of bling! I now have a Summery picture that will always remind me of a treasured holiday…

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