Paperartsy Challenge - Theme 6 - Grunge Paste

The new topic on Paperartsy, is Grunge Paste (or other texture pastes)  - love love love Grunge Paste! There have been some amazing projects so far, from Wanda Hentges's Garden Hanging, to  Lou Collins Wood Grain effect  and Liz Borer's Decorated Hand. 

I loved the wood grain effect, but had an idea to alter a little papier mache bird house - which doesn't have must room to give it the full treatment like Lou... However...

 I bought this little bird house (and 2 others) at the Port Sunlight show last October.. finally been able to use one!

No early stage photos, got a bit carried away... started by painting the whole thing with Snowflake, then started adding colours.. used Brown Shed (too red) Chutney (too dark) Haystack.. ok. Added some little leafy flowery stamps from the new ELB20 on the front,in Library Green archival and on some scraps of tissue for the sides
the little resin bird was painted with French Roast and then covered with Sapphire Treasure Gold and fixed to the perch with Heavy Structure Gel.

 added some dots of red for the flowers, using a Liquitex paint pen before adding the tissue to the side.
The roof was made by mixing GP with London Night Fresco and adding a reasonably thick layer to the roof of the bird house.
I think the roofer must be very inexperienced, because the roof spacing isn't very even (on the other side particularly!)  - used a coffee stirrer to draw the lines.
Once the paste was thoroughly dry (overnight) I added a thin slightly watered down layer of Dusty Teal to give it a bit of colour.

 the back was where I wanted to try the wood grain effect used so beautifully on the Paperartsy blog  - mixed the GP with Chocolate Pudding and slathered it on - I just drew lines down with the coffee stirrer again, and let dry. Added a thin wash of French Roast and sanded back lightly.

 I really had fun with this one (not so with the photographs, it's damp and dull this morning!!) and entering the Paperartsy challenge here