Harware store art

I was picking up a few items at the hardware store, and had a look around for things that could be used in mixed media art. Quite a lot as it turned out.

What if I take one of the backgrounds on which I have been working

and pair it up with a few paint chip circles (made with my new Fiskars Squeeze Punch)

what it I move them off the end

and cut the background in half

what if I cover them with glass fiber strips you use to join dry walls (comes on a roll and have glue on the back), add gel medium and some threads from a bag of what we used to call twist (those white threads used for polishing cars)?

When dry

it looks very different than the other half (the other half was used for the Zentangle doodling in this post)

but what if I add a little paint and a few tiny lines with a black marker?

The light coming from the side makes the white grid rather prominent, it is quite soft really.

Hmmm, interesting, lots of layers, a fun exercise with a few tricks and supplies that I can bring into my quilts.

How do you exercise your creative muscles?