Looking at old holiday photos of Greece, I was inspired by the old weathered shutters and doors. I used one of my favourite techniques to create the background and some lovely images from an old magazine – I hope you like it (smile!).

I started by creating the worn wooden background by dragging Peeled Paint and Brushed Sage Distress Ink pads vertically down the page and layering Liquitex Matte Gel Medium over the top; the gel medium reactivates the inks and helps create the wood grain texture. When dry, I dragged some Black Soot, Weathered Wood and Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink pads over the top and more gel medium; the gel medium was applied using a paintbrush and I ensured my brush strokes were continuous and in one direction vertically down the page in order to create the wood grain finish. Next I experimented by adding some Ranger Crackle Paste vertically down the page and when dry used sandpaper on some of the areas to give it more of a distressed look. Then I added more layers of the Weathered Wood and Cracked Pistachio Distress Inks to colour the crackle paste and achieve the worn painted wood look I was after. The black and white images of the doors and shutters were from a magazine and the number “1” with the brick background was from a wallpaper sample; I cut them out, backed them with some card and edged them with a black Faber-Castell marker. They were arranged using double-sided tape and to finish, I added the “what seems ordinary is often the extraordinary” wording which is a Small Talk sticker from Tim Holtz.

These shutters and doors were taken many years ago when we visited Crete, which is one of the Greek Islands. The weathered doors looked amazing although I’m sure the locals think they are just ordinary, hence the wording on my page.

We enjoyed exploring the town and taking in the beautiful scenery.

The doors and shutters were beautifully rustic and distressed and I seem to remember enjoying the shade in this doorway, as we had sunny hot weather too (smile!).
Hoping that you all stay safe and well! x
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
The lovely Wendy from wendyscraftjournal is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Doors and/or Arches so I’m joining her with my old weathered door inspired page.
Paperbabe Stamps and their #173 – Anything Goes challenge with my page.
LTSCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the scrapped magazine images that I used on my page.
MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to create the worn weathered wood background.
that is a cool technique to get a weathered wood look. The soft colors of the doors is so pretty. Nice photo of you enjoying the shade. Have a good weekend!
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Those doors look amazing on Crete. I love the colors. I can see why you were inspired to create a page with that beautiful background and then add in the doors. And not only is your background a great color, but it looks like painted wood. Thanks for squeezing in another page for Wendy’s AJJ challenge Jo. Enjoy your weekend. Hugs Erika
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Awesome page and I love the pics of your trip! Fabulous!
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Wow! Amazing!
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Fabulous page Jo, I love Italy. Thank you for joining us on AJJ again. Hugs Wendy.
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This is an amazing Art page Jo ! Wonderful background, and great doors!
I wish you a very nice Sunday,
Big hugs, Caty
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U was blown away by how the background of your page matched perfectly with those old doors in Crete. I love that background technique you created and it is what actually makes the page so very special. I was also impressed you used magazine and wallpaper samples to make the focal images. You did a fabulous job putting this together. Thanks fr sharing this with us at Art Journal Journey using Wendy’s theme.
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WOW! Really love the way you’ve done your background here with that distress ink and your crackle for a weather wood! It goes just perfectly with your photos too! Really lovely memories from a great trip! Thanks for sharing!
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I like the color of the doors and window shutters. It’s not a color I ever see here.
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Wow! Your background is amazing Jo, great colours too! A wonderful page!
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Wonderful! Lots of layers to achieve your weathered painted wood background! Lots of patience waiting for each layer to dry, too! Very artistic! Thanks for including your vacation photos! And thanks for including MIUCB in your links! –Becca/DT
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