"Make pretty things"-altered storage cubes for Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog

Hello there, fellow creative souls! I'm excited to have a brand new scraproom, and I've been having such a great time getting it ready! I had a cute little white shelf, but the things I needed to store on it weren't exactly pretty to look at and would have ended up being a cluttered mess, so I create this instead:

I started off with 11" cubes from the Dollar Tree, and chose the lightest coloured ones as I figured they'd be the easiest to cover.

I brushed the whole front with white gesso, then arranged chipboard, flowers, lace, buttons etc until I was happy with the effect, then glued them all on and covered it all with white gesso (if you put a coat on the blank surface first, you won't get unwelcome glimpses of the original colour peeking through)

I then misted with a variety of pastel mists, adding more after the first coat dried until I reached the intensity of colour I desired.

This was a fun project to put together and I love how well it coordinates with the rest of the decor in the room! I will be posting pics of my finished room soon-as soon as I find places for the last couple boxes of "this and that!"

Have a wonderful week and find time to make some pretty things yourself! xoxo

"Pawprints" frame for Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge blog

Hey there, friends! I had this plain chipboard frame in my stash and decided it would be perfect to use for  a furbaby project-I just love the sentiment "pawprints on my heart"; it and the other chipboard embellishments are from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.

I stencilled randomly with homemade texture paste, then added the  chipboard and other embellishments  before priming the whole thing with white gesso.
I then misted with a variety of Tattered Angels mists, then I rubbed the chipboard pieces with Rose Gold Metallique Wax.

The photo in the frame is of our two dogs, Dudley and Elmo, who have since crossed the Rainbow Bridge. This photo was taken over twenty years ago, but their pawprints definitely remain on the hearts of my family.

Thanks so much for stopping by; I hope you enjoyed seeing my project-give your furbabies an extra hug today! xoxo

"Grow Old Along With Me"-mixed media chipboard card for Creative Artiste

Hello crafty friends! We have recently purchased a new home, and I've been a bit fascinated with house-themed projects lately (you'd be amazed how many GAZILLIONS of them there are on Pinterest!) so I created this to commemorate our upcoming move. It's a Design Team piece for the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog's June challenge.

I had some leftover pages from a chipboard album and drew my pattern onto one of those. I copied just the grassy mound onto a second piece to serve as the opening part of the card. When these were cut out, I started with patterned paper, which I distressed, inked, gessoed and painted like crazy, then I added bricks which were created using baking soda texture paste which was coloured and spread onto pieces of cereal box board.

I added corrugate pieces for the chimney and door, and added bits of lace, ribbon, metal and wood for the various finishing details. I attached the front with tiny hinges.

I dug deep into my stash of alphabets and word art to create the sentiment, which is a line from a poem by Robert Browning.

The inside of the card simply reads, "Welcome Home."

Thanks so much for stopping by; I hope you have enjoyed seeing my project, and wish you a delightfully colourful and creative June, wherever your home may be! xoxo

Altered Tissue Box for Creative Artiste

Hello crafty friends! I decided to create a piece of home decor this month; I found the wooden tissue box at a thrift store-it had been painted white and stenciled with some simple and very colourful Christmas images. Since I used very thick papers, I didn't even bother to paint over them.

After cutting the paper to size. I added stencilling with homemade texture paste and some Tattered Angels mists. After the papers were adhered to the box with white glue, I inked the edges, then added diecut flowers and foliage along with some shells, beach glass, chipboard and wooden embellishments to create texture and interest.

I cut the image from another piece of the paper and attached it to the end that would be facing outward in my room-I loved the image but the piece it was on was too small to use for the front. I like how it looks on the end, though.

 I make my texture paste quite thick for crisp lines and no bleeding under the stencil.

Thanks so much for stopping by; this was fun to create and I love the idea of altering thrift store "uglies"! Have a terrific and creative week! xx

First project for the Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge blog design team!

Hello crafty friends! I'm happy to announce that I've been invited to join the design team and the Creative Artiste Mixed Media  Challenge blog; the first Friday of every month, our mixed media projects will be posted on their blogs along with that month's challenge....we'd love to have you come and play along!

I created an 8x8 canvas using a variety of items; after the items were all adhered and texture paste stencilling was added, the whole canvas was primed with black gesso, then finished with Twinkling H20s, Tattered Angels mists and Art Alchemy metallic waxes.

                       You can find the challenge blog HERE...come on by and play along!

I'm also entering this project in the February challenge at Mixed Media Academy-you can find their challenge post HERE.