Pebble Town!

Well, I've been away on my jollies so I've been absent for a while, but I am now back and well rested and raring to go! 

I've always liked funky little houses and have been drawing and painting them for ever. I think it was probably one of the first things I learned to draw as a kid. And I've been doing it ever since! 

I used to paint quite a lot on pebbles but kind of forgot about it until Michelle at The Hobby Room inspired me to start doing it again. 

When I came across these pebbles recently I thought they looked like houses, or rather, they looked like they could become houses.  In the UK a lot of our seaside villages have houses painted in pretty pastel shades and I really wanted to create a pastel village.

I opted for my fabulous DecoArt products for this little project; Americana Premium Acrylics, One Step Crackle, Gesso, Fluid Acrylics in Gold,  Antiquing Cream in Black, and the amazing Clear Pouring Topcoat.

So, here's a few steps of how I decorated my little pebbles and turned them into houses.

First of all a base layer of gesso:

Then a simple layer of pastel shades. I used white to create pastel shades but then aimed to go darker around the edges to make them look more dimensional.

I chose two of my houses to add one-step crackle to the roof. I added a thick layer with my finger (I find brushing can disrupt the crackle process) and then left it to dry naturally.

Once dry I added some antiquing cream to enhance the cracks. You can see in this photo that I also added some stamping to the houses. You really can stamp on anything!

And then a little more decorating. A seaside pastel village would have flowers and bunting!

I added detail and a bit more shading with a fine sharpie, pencil crayons, and a Posca pen in white.

To finish off my houses I chose to add DecoArt clear pouring Topcoat because it creates a beautiful glossy glass-like finish. As you can see I stand my pebbles on an old lid to raise them and allow the topcoat to cover all sides.

(This isn't fully waterproof so if you're planning to leave pebbles outside they would need a layer of varnish)

Ta-da! A village! Big thanks to Michelle for the inspiration to paint pebbles again :-)