Crafty Mrs P: "Life is never going to be long enough"

Hi there
I thought I would try to share some more projects on my blog. I don't always take photos, then when I've finished my artwork, I wished I had!
I had a feeling that this may come out ok, so I decided to take a few minutes while crafting to take some pics.
I watched some tutorials on YouTube for Tim Holtz's Distress Crayons which I'd bought a while ago when they first came out - I hadn't done much with them apart from try them on scrap!
After watching on YouTube, it seemed that I needed some Gesso which I'd seen mentioned many a time on blogs, but in amongst my crafty stuff, this was something I'd never invested in....Order placed!
So the Gesso arrived and I thought I'd have a go to see what I could create.......
Ingredients:
7x7 Clarity Stencil Card
Pebeo white Gesso & palette knife
Tim Holtz Distress Crayons, paint brush & water
Glass Blue & Chalk PaperArtsy Acrylics & Spreader
Olive Green & Black Archival Inks
Boy & Birds Stamp
"Life is never going to be long enough" Clarity NDC Stamp
Clarity Town & Dotty Wave Stencils
White Sharpie Pen & Blue Promarker

First I had a messy session spreading Gesso on several pieces of Clarity Stencil card with a palette knife - left it uneven to add texture then left them to dry.

I scribbled patches of colour over the dried Gesso and brushed on some water to blend the colours - I may have gone over the top using all the Brights crayon set, but I wanted to try the whole lot.

Next the stamps, Boy & Birds and sentiment stamped in Black Archival - these need to be pressed firmly as the Gesso was quite uneven.

Using the edge of the blending mat, tear a piece of copy paper and with Green Archival, sponge a hill in place.

Squeeze a blob of acrylic and dab in the spreader to pick up some of the paint, randomly placing lines on the artwork in each colour (thanks to Sam Crowe for this little tip).

The bottom left corner looked a bit bare, so I used the Town Stencil to add a bit of interest with black archival & a make-up sponge. Around the edges & middle, I dabbed a small amount of Chalk Acrylic paint through the Dotty Wave Stencil with a blending tool.

I used a white Sharpie pen for highlighting and then edged the piece with a blue Promarker before mounting on an 8x8 blank greeting card.....finished!