Weather worn garden shed: Assemblage.

I decided to alter one of the cool little houses and turn it in to an assemblage with a garden shed theme. And because garden sheds are outside all year, I focused on giving it a loved but weather worn look.

I started by applying a few paint techniques to it.  It needed a base coat first as I was unsure if the paint would happily adhere to such a smooth surface (the untreated house has a light shine to it). SO a base coat was put on.  You can use any kind of suitable base… even home decor undercoat… I gave mine a coat of acrylic medium; no idea why I chose that but it worked. then i gave it a coat of light green. I let it dry and then did the rest in sections. The first technique i applied to one part of the roof. I used weathered wood crackle glaze followed by white  and achieved the following look:

The next effect I did was on the other side of the roof and it requires a heatgun.  Apply the white paint and heat dry it with the a heatgun. But over heat it and let it really bubble up (without scorching).  Allow the area to get covered in these blisters then let the paint cool and get hard again (acrylic paint is quite elastic when warm). Once its dry and cold, roughly sand the blisters off.  It gives a good weather worn look.

I also did the Vaseline (petroleum jelly) technique. Smear random blobs of Vaseline over the green paint then apply the white top coat. when the paint has dried, wipe away the Vaseline to show the green underneath. You can see that effect in the next photo.

Once i had all my “effects” done, i began to decorate it. I used sequin waste ( I think it can also be called punchanella ?) I laid the sequin waste on to the little house and dabbed over it with various Versamagic Chalk inks. I chose bright citrus like colours mostly, as well as a nice dark mossy green. After dabbing through the sequin waste to create spots, i flipped it over and utilised the excess ink on the sequin wastes reverse side. It gives a nice honeycomb effect. Both effects can be seen in the photo above.

I used the same chalk inks to colour some wooden shapes and attached them to my little garden shed.

All I had left to do was fill it up……. I used moss, drift wood, rusty items and decorated a wooden heart in the same colours as the house, to dangle from the branches.  I filled little bottles and used some ephemera to create my little garden shed assemblage.

Note, versamagic chalk ink will smudge if you do not let it dry before touching. It will dry in a short time, but can also be heat set using a heat gun.

Supplies used from Calico crafts:

Chipboard House display unit. HERE

DecoArt Americana paint: ‘foliage green’ and ‘white wash’. HERE

Weathered wood Crackle medium HERE

Versamagic chalk inks: HERE (I used  ‘turquoise gem’ ‘gingerbread’ ‘pumpkin spice’ ‘key lime’ ‘Spanish olive’ ‘mango madness’)

wooden rabbits and little wooden flower HERE

wooden  bird on branch HERE

wooden tree HERE

drift wood HERE

moss HERE

rusty shapes and wire HERE

little bottles HERE

wooden heart HERE

Ephemera HERE

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