Showing posts with label recycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recycling. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Shades of Purple


It is the start of a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and this time Sara Emily, our hostess is calling it Repeat Performance.  Here is what she has to say about the challenge:

A popular New Year's resolution is to save money. I challenge you to save money (and the environment) by using at least one thing you would normally throw out on your vintage or shabby chic project. Please be sure to let us know what that one (or more) item is.



I recycled an empty cracker box and had my husband cut this fancy frame for me on his laser cutter.  Then I set about to alter it.  The inside of the box looks like chipboard and while it is thinner than most chipboard, it is thicker than card stock and holds up quite well to wet media.  I probably should have taken a picture of the other side so you could see that this is cut from the cracker box but I forgot (that happens a lot lately - hmmm).


The first step to alter the frame was to give it a coat of White Gesso (Dina Wakley) and then add some Texture Paste (Ranger) randomly with a palette knife.


Next I covered the frame with a coat of Blackberry Acrylic Paint (Dina Wakley) and let it dry completely before I added a coat of Paint Crackle Medium (Folk Art).

Once the medium was completely dry I covered it with a fairly thin coat of Heather Acrylic Paint (Dina Wakley) using a small, worn paintbrush with stiff bristles and then let it dry. I used an X-Acto blade to remove any medium and paint that crept into the holes.


Next I altered a large metal butterfly with Purple Twilight and Wild Plum Alcohol Ink along with some Blending Solution.


Next I rubbed the butterfly with some Amethyst Magic Antique Brilliance (Prima) followed by some Perfect Pearl Perfect Pearls powder (Ranger) to give it lots of shimmer.


I made some leaves from the Metallic Jewels paper (Tim Holtz) and the Skeleton Leaves Thinlets die set (Tim Holtz).

Now it was time to use all these elements to make the card.  I started with a white card stock blank and added a layer of patterned paper from the Stamperia Lilac Flowers collection that I distressed first.

Next I added the frame and the butterfly.  I added a white flourish from my stash and then some flowers (Recollections and I Craft) and a loopy white twine (Recollections) bow.  I cut the skeleton leaves into sections and tucked them under the flowers and then I made a stick pin with beads from my stash and added it.  Finally I added a couple teeny adhesive pearls (Dollarama) to the corners of the frame.

Please join us for the challenge and show us what you have recycled.  One randomly chosen entry will receive a gift certificate to go shopping at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and with all the new products coming out, you probably have a long wish list so that sure would help.  The Design Team will also choose their top picks with the overall winner receiving an opportunity to be a Guest Designer at a future date.

Supplies list with links to The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Dina Wakley Media Mediums - White Gesso MDM41689
Ranger Texture Paste Opaque Matte INK44444
Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Blackberry, 1oz Bottle
Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paint - Heather - 1oz Bottle
Bronze Tone Butterfly Set of 2
Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Jewels Kraft Stock
Artificial Flower Pearlized Stamen - One Bundle
Scor Tape
Stamperia Lilac Flowers Paper
Sizzix Tim Holtz Skeleton Leaves
Flourish, White Twine, Paper Flowers, Beads, Stick Pin Card Stock, Paint Crackle Medium, Adhesive Pearls

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Saturday Step x Step

Just a little reminder that the details on how I made my Flower Fairy Hanging are available at Frilly and Funkie today.


This was a very simple project so it won't take you long to see how I transformed something retrieved from the garbage into a pretty wall hanging with lots of Wendy Vecchi's flowers.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Trash to Treasure


The new challenge starts today at Stamps and Stencils.  Autumn is hosting this one and she is calling it Trash to Treasure.  She describes it this way:

"Don't we all love a good upcycled project? This month we'd love to see how you take something that you'd normally discard and give it new life in your art. Whether it's glamorized boxes, Styrofoam turned into a stamp, packaging that's been die cut, or another altered idea you have. Bring on your best mixed media repurposing! We can't wait to see what you come up! Don't forget to use stamps or stencils in your project."


I decided to make a wall hanging that could hang in someone's sewing room.  First I had my husband cut me a piece of masonite on his fancy laser cutting machine.  The next step was to add my recycled items - the squares.  OK, not square exactly but definitely recycled since computers these days will not take these old floppy disks.  My husband had piles of them and offered them to me.  I accepted them but at the time had no idea what I was going to do with them.



Once they were adhered to the masonite, I coated everything with Liquitex Gesso and then coated the floppies with Liquitex Super Heavy Gesso. As you can see the heavy Gesso didn't smooth everything out so I decided to add some texture paste.  I used Golden Crackle Paste on the floppies themselves and Golden Light Molding Paste with a TCW Mini Geometric Art Layers stencil and a TCW Tiny Circles stencil on the backing board.  To get the stenciling in between the floppies since they were already glued down, I enlisted the aid of my handy dandy husband who drew some tiny circles in a graphics program and then cut a very narrow strip stencil on the laser cutting machine.  Love that machine - him too!!!!!




Next I added all the little bits and pieces - Tiny wooden clothespins and metals from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, Lace from Fancy Gap, Wooden Text created by my husband and sewing supplies from my stash.  I have discovered that Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel makes a great adhesive for most of the items and Glossy Accents is perfect for the beads and other tiny things.  Once adhered I covered everything with another coat of Gesso to unify the colour.

Next I painted everything with a coat of DecoArt Buttermilk Acrylic Paint and then a watered down coat of DecoArt Melon Acrylic Paint.   Ink sprays came next - Lindy's Starburst in Wild Honeysuckle Coral and a touch of Saxifrage Olive Coral, which had more green in it than I wanted (Olive - dah) so I used a natural sea sponge and dabbed on some Bronze Metallic Acrylic Paint from Craftsmart and some Folk Art Champagne Metallic Acrylic Paint.

Finally I added the sentiment which was stamped from a TPC Studio set and some seed beads that I picked up in the discount section at Michaels.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge - Pastel Colors
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes - Altered Art, Mixed Media (no cards or ATCs)
Crafter's Cafe - Use Some Lace
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Altered Art, Mixed Media (no cards or ATCs)
Take a Word  - Sewing
We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative Mixed Media Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Pastels

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Peacock Wall Hanging



The new challenge at Anything But Cute begins today and is hosted by Niki.  She is calling it Mixed Media Makeover and here is how she describes it:

"Pull out an old card, tag, project, masterboard or embellishment that you weren't completely happy with or never completely finished. I want you to recycle it. We all make "mistakes" with our art right? Now's your chance to fix it. Redo it, hide the mistake, make it bigger, make it better, make it more beautiful or rip it apart and use the pieces! Give it a mixed media makeover! For this challenge you will need to include a before picture so we can see what you started with."


A year or so ago and before I got into mixed media I purchased this wooden shadowbox frame with the intention of painting it some lovely colour and filling the inside with mementos of either my grandchildren or perhaps of my daughter.  I wanted the frame to be nice and smooth but after hours and hours of sanding that wasn't going to happen most likely because I was going cheap and got it from the dollar store.  Once I reached my frustration level because it was staying rough, I stuck it in a plastic bag along with the latex gloves and sanding block and shoved it in a cupboard and there it sat until Niki told us her challenge and then I could actually create something with it that I knew I would be happy with. 


I yanked the little hinges off and set the cover aside and perhaps it will be something in the future if I can cut the plastic window out of it - yes plastic, I told you it was cheap.  Then I got to work transforming the bottom.  I decided to make a wall hanging out of it and treated it much like you might treat a canvas.

First I gave it a coat of Liquitex Super Heavy Gesso just to eliminate the chance of giving myself slivers since this thing was so rough.  Next I crumpled up some tissue paper, opened it back up again and glued it all over using Mod Podge.



I used a Prima flourish stencil with some Golden Light Molding Paste and gave the piece some texture on the sides and top.  Then after that was dry I glued cheesecloth all over the top, letting it hang over the edges.  I also added little pieces of an open weave fabric to the sides.  I didn't add any additional texture to the back since you won't see it.



The next step was to dig into my stash and add lots of lace strips and motifs, flowers, buttons, beads and bauble trim using Mod Podge.  Once everything was dry I gave it a coat of Liquitex Gesso to unify the colour since everything was a different colour.

Then I painted the whole project, including the back with some Craftsmart Aqua acrylic paint.  To create the peacock colours I dripped on some FW Silver Moss, Sun-Up Blue and Antelope Brown Inks and spritzed them with water to make them run.  Then I followed with Deco Art Peacock Pearl, Ice Blue Pearl and Purple Pearl acrylic paints that were dabbed on with a natural sea sponge.


Next I created the image by making the background of a free image from The Graphic Fairy transparent and adding it on top of free digital vintage script paper from Creavapeur.com.  Once the image was printed and cut to size I inked it with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and distressed the edges.  I added a piece of chipboard to the backside in order to raise the image up a bit before I glued it to my hanging.  Then I added a few sequins from the dollar store to the image and the background.

Finally I covered a couple of screw eyes and a length of wire with some Ranger Aqua Alcohol Ink and then added beads from Arton Bead Supply, Michaels and Dollarama to create the hanger.  In order to ensure that the beads stayed where I wanted them, I added bead crimps.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Mixed Media Goes (no cards or ATCs)
Shopping Our Stash - Put a bird on it
That Craft Place - Mixed Media Anything Goes
Mixed Media World - Gorgeous Textures
We Love 2 Create - #18 - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

I hope you will join us for the September challenge and show us what you have made over.


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Christmas Recycling


It is time for a new challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow and we are calling it Recycling or Re-purposing.  We want to see vintage or shabby chic projects where you have used a recycled item or you have used an item meant for a different purpose (re-purposing).



I have created another ornament for my Christmas tree from a used CD.  My husband brought a pile home from his work a couple years ago and asked if I could do anything with them - well yes.   I got my husband to drill two holes opposite each other and then started gluing strips of music paper on one side.  After they were dry, I punched the holes again.  Then I glued the music paper to the other side and re-punched the holes.  If you glue the paper to both sides before punching the holes, you won't know where to find them - something I learned the hard way with the first CD ornament I made.

After the glue was dry I inked it lightly with Vintage Photo Distress Ink from Ranger and then dabbed on some Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing Paste.

I printed the vintage Santa from Magpie on the House and fussy cut it before I glued it to the ornament.  Next I raided my Christmas creating stash for some Christmas greenery that I frosted with a bit of snow (a.k.a. styrofoam shavings), a little pine cone and some red and white berries.

The poinsettia was made using a Marianne Creatables die from paper that I dabbed with craft paint and a natural sea sponge before I cut the pieces.  After the pieces were cut, I inked them all with Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and then added Forest Moss Distress Ink to one.  I used a Copic marker to define the veins.  Then I added some beads from my stash for the centre.

The hanger is some red seam binding from my sewing closet with a button from a warehouse in Fancy Gap, Virginia added to cover the top hole. I made some bead charms for the bottom and hung them from some gold chain.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Sugar Creek Hollow October Trash to Treasure


Today is another Sensational Saturday at Sugar Creek Hollow and it is also the first of the month so that means it is time for another TRASH TO VINTAGE TREASURE challenge. Your vintage card or other paper-crafted project must start with or include one or more items that you would normally throw away. This does not mean paper scraps in your stash but you can use them in addition to your recycled or re-purposed item. Please make sure you add a photo to your blog post of the throw-away item(s) you have used so we can see how your creativity began.


I have created an ornament for my Christmas tree and it started life as a CD for a scanner that bit the dust a few years ago. I am not sure why we kept the driver CD but I am happy now that we did so I could put it to use. Here is a close-up view of the image on the ornament.


I have a large tree that I decorate with lots of red and gold elements - balls, sparkly picks, poinsettias, etc. I made giant red bows to which I attached three long strands of beads so this ornament should fit in perfectly. If it looks as good as I think it will, I might have to make a few more since I want the tree to look loaded.

We will be choosing a random winner who will receive a digi of our choice and the Design Team will select a Card of the Week.

Our designers have been digging through their recycling bins and transformed some great items into wonderful treasures for your inspiration. To get more details and see what they used, just click on their name when you are visiting the challenge blog and you will be taken directly to their blog.

I am going to enter this in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
Just For Fun - Anything but a Card
Paper Crafting Journey - Die Cuts and/or Punches
Inky Impressions - Punches or Dies
Die Cuttin Divas - Vintage or Shabby Chic

Image:  Christmas Bells (Isabella's Sketchbook)
Paper:  Miss Cutie Pie
Colouring Medium:  Pencil Crayons (Prismacolors) with OMS (Gotrick)
Tools & Embellishments:  Narrow Ribbon (Michaels), Ribbon (Costco), Die (Nellie Snellen), Pearl Stickers (Recollections), Roses (Wild Orchid Crafts), Braid (My Stash), Beads (My Stash), Antique Linen & Fired Brick Distress Ink (Ranger),