Homemade Texture Paste...

I've been having a go at making my own texture paste, and it works pretty well, and the results are pretty much the same as using the expensive bought stuff...

You need bicarbonate of soda (or talcum powder), white PVA glue (any inexpensive stuff you can find will do) and white acrylic paint, measuring spoons, cup measure, an airtight small pot and a craft stick

Measure out 1/4 cup of bicarbonate of soda into your container. Add 2 tablespoons of white paint, and 1 -2 tablespoons of PVA glue, stir until it's a nice creamy consistency. Add up to another tablespoon of glue if it seems a bit thick

Cover with a lid, make sure it's tightly shut. It keeps as well as the shop bought stuff. Use with stencils, make sure you wash your stencils right away. Sprinkle the paste with glitter if wanted while it is still wet. You can also ink it once it's dry 

Here's a couple more, for this starry one, I sprinkled the stars with glitter when wet.....

and I love this stencil by Imagination Crafts here in the UK

and here's why you haven't seen me for a few days. The new floor has been laid throughout the ground floor of the house, which meant all the furniture had to be piled up and shifted from room to room....

thank goodness the Orangery took a lot of the overflow....

but my carefully organised and tidy little studio had to be stripped bare....

The whole process took four days - four days of misery actually. We had nowhere to sit, nowhere to watch TV, the computer was unhooked, the phone was buried somewhere under a pile of stuff....

But it was worth it! You can see the start of the new floor in the studio shot above, and the rooms are put together again, the half inch of dust from the cutting of the wood has been wiped away, we waved a grateful goodbye to our latest workmen (from Albania this time, to add to the Hungarian, Pole, Italian etc etc we have collected over the past few weeks!)

It's beginning to feel like home at last. See you tomorrow x