How I saved a cracker box from the trash

Do you often wonder what you could do with those cardboard boxes that seem to pile up in your recycle bin?  Here's one idea!

Materials from left:
5 in 1 (spreader)
Masking tape
Empty cardboard box (not corrugated)
Joint compound
Kraft paper used to cover my self healing mat

I had already taped the bottom and sides of this box when I realized I had grabbed the low tack tape.  However, I felt it would work fine, since it would soon be covered.

I began by trying to spread the joint compound as smooth as possible, then decided I preferred the texture better, so added more joint compound and "roughed" the piece up a bit.  I allowed the front, sides and back to dry, then added joint compound to the ends.

Next came the paint.  The Clark and Kensington paint was free from ACE Hardware.  They gave a quart away free one weekend earlier this year.  The other two paints were also free from my Household Hazardous Waste Swap and Shop.  I will never have to buy paint again, since I have such a great resource as my HHW Swap and Shop.

I covered everything but the back side using the Clark and Kensington paint, and before it dried,

I added Dusty Rose, a pale pink I thought would be darker.  I wasn't exactly thrilled with the outcome, but it was too late to stop now.  I allowed this mess paint to dry, then

painted the back using the first paint.  Those white spots are actually wet paint under the poor lighting in my basement studio.  I allowed this to dry for two days, because it was so cold and a bit damp in my basement studio.  Once dry, I brought it upstairs.

Upstairs in my main floor craft room, I sprayed some vintage sheet music with spray mists, including some pink I made on Day 1, then sewed the quote:

The heart wants what the heart wants.
~attributed to Woody Allen

I tipped the box so you could better see the piece, then decided, due to my really old camera, that position didn't show it as well as I hoped.

This position was a bit better, but the color was a bit dark.  You can tell the box stands on its own and could pass for one of my wood pieces.  I used one of Annette's (Voodoo Vixen) roses she sent me last year.  Odd that it would take so long to find a use for this beautiful handmade flower.

The color is all wrong here (and didn't respond well to anything I tried in Photoshop), but this shows the texture of the piece and the dimension of the flower.

Today is Day 21, and I recycled a cardboard box, used some free paint, colored and repurposed some vintage sheet music, and incorporated a beautiful flower I received as a gift.  I would call this a great art day!

With a lot of inspiration from my friends

 I am always inspired by my blogging friends, and this project was no exception.  Although it is not yet finished, and I have suffered some miserable setbacks, I have been working on it for over a week. That is why I felt I needed to at least show what I've accomplished so far.

I took inspiration from Corrine at Sparkle Days Studio, Marilyn at Art Rocks, Mel at The Yorkshire Fox, and Annette (Voodoo Vixen) at Scrap Happens Here.

To begin with, I have to thank Corrine for her post on Wood Icing, a product I found at my local Household Hazardous Waste Swap and Shop.  She showed some lovely art she created using Wood Icing and stencils.  That got me thinking about the mask and stencil combination Annette sent me which she created on her die cutting machine and I backed with Wacky Tac, a repositionable adhesive designed for scrapbookers.

From left: Wood icing crackle (step 2), wood block I painted several months ago with spray paint, the dressmaker stencil, Wood Icing step 1 in chocolate, paint can opener, masking tape.  Not shown: foam brush.

 I have no idea what Corrine's Wood Icing looks like, but this was what Step 1 of what I picked up looked like.  It shook like it had never been opened.

This was step 2, an optional crackle medium.

I decided that even though I had the Wacky Tac on the back of the stencil  Annette (Voodoo Vixen) sent me, I still needed to protect the piece with masking tape.  I opened Step 1 and found it was very, very thin, not what Corrine described at all.  How could two items with the same name be so different?

What a mess.  Not only did Step 1 run, it was so thin it didn't even stay where it was supposed to.  I should have cleaned it off right then, but I kept hoping some miracle would turn it into something a bit thicker.

I left the piece to dry, put everything away, and cleaned my brush.  What a mess!!

Talk about messes, even though the paint inside the stencil had dried, the wood icing had crept underneath the stencil and was still wet, even after an entire day and night.  This was horrible.  I cleaned the mess as best I could, including the stencil.

Then I remembered Marilyn had used joint compound with her stencils, so I grabbed my container of joint compound and went to town.

This time I spread the joint compound using a 5 in 1, a tool that includes a spreader.

I removed the stencil, realizing I would need to do some rework on the paint because not all the wood icing came off when I tried to remove it.  This is where it sits now.  I can't continue with the next step, which Mel inspired with a scrapbook page she created, until I do even more rework.  But I have my blogging friends to thank for all the inspiration they have provided me so far.

This is day 3 of AEDM.  Who or what inspires you?

____________________

Christmas Quiltlet, a mixed media fabric tutorial

As promised, here is the first tutorial of the year. This is a quiltlet (some might call it a small hanging art quilt) I made for a friend who gave me some fabric scraps. I didn't have enough of the right colors for the entire quiltlet, but I was able to use the fabric with stars she gave me. I hope you like this mixed media quiltlet tutorial I made since I had no scanner available at the time I made this.



I began with some fabric I purchased at Tuesday Morning awhile back. It was in a fat quarter bundle and I expected all the fabric to be a similar color or theme. That was not the case. Of the four pieces I chose (along with the "star" fabric my friend gave, me, none of the Tuesday Morning pieces were color coordinated (and I have a THING about color, since I know it's the one design element or principle I get "right").

Back to the tutorial! I began by tearing four fabric pieces to about 4.5 inches square, as shown at the top of the photo, then stacked them like a sandwich (right sides facing the same direction) and sewed them together on the edges and in overlapping and diminishing circles until I had enough areas to remove parts of the surfaces.



I then cut away pieces of the fabric, some of which I cut through two layers, other through only one layer. I cut between the lines left by the thread to expose the fabric below. I used the green football fabric, but didn't cut through to expose it.


I applied gesso with a brush to knock down some of the bright color of the fabric and to hopefully make the colors more cohesive. I then allowed the gesso to dry overnight.


The next day, after the gesso dried, I applied various bits of metallic rub-n-buff over the gesso. I'm not quite sure I know why I pulled this product out, but I suspect it was because I hadn't used it in a long time and wanted to try something a bit different.


I applied Golden Fluid Acrylic paint to a rubber stamp using a makeup sponge. After I had enough paint on the stamp, I lightly stamped all over the altered fabric.


Next, I chose a stencil, then taped it to the fabric.


I applied joint compound through the stencil using an old gift card.


When dry, I positioned the altered fabric sandwich on the background fabric I chose. The background was some I had overdyed using blue Staz-on and alcohol. In the above photo, the altered fabric sandwich has not been sewed to the background. I only placed it there so I would know where to position the second stencil area.


Once again, I used an old gift card to spread the joint compound, then allowed it to also dry. When dry, I used fluid acrylic paint (blue and gold) to paint the raised areas.

(Click to see the entire picture)

It's no secret I need a better camera, and because I had no way to get photos off the camera when I took these photos, I had to hope for the best. I often take hundreds of pictures to get the best one, but this time I had to choose between two, neither of which was very good. However, I really wanted you to see the dimension left by the joint compound. Sadly, the gold shows up as white in the photo, so you will have to take my word that it is gold.

I have also now sewed the altered fabric to the background using a zig-zag stitch on the edges and one small straight stitch above the tiny joint compound circles only. I did that after I added the batting, but before I added the backing.


I was quite happy with the finished quiltlet, even though I learned a lot from this exercise. In case you weren't sure, it is a wall hanging. I started to gesso the fabric I used for the loops, then decided to leave them plain unaltered, since they were made from the fabric I received from my friend, who I, in turn, made the quiltlet for as a Christmas gift.

Ruminations:

My first problem was I should have used five or six layers of fabric when I made the altered fabric "sandwich." I would have had better color choices if I had done that and I could have cut through more pieces of fabric.

I should not have used all the fabric from the group of fat quarters I got at Tuesday Morning. The colors were simply not compatible with the star fabric, or with each other. I should have found more compatible fabric, or hand dyed some specifically for the project. No amount of gesso, rub-n-buff, joint compound, or stamping with acrylic paint brought these colors together properly.

Speaking of joint compound, my next stencil will be larger, because I had a terrible time getting the paint on those tiny, tiny circles. If you have questions, or if I was unclear about part of the process, please ask.


I hope you have enjoyed this first tutorial for 2012. And because the theme for the month of January at Creative Every Day is "NEW" (like my computer video card, which is not a card, but on the motherboard), I thought joining in this week, when my computer is hopefully here to stay, would be a way to inspire others (my word for 2012) to create some "new" art, too. That's why I am linking to Leah at Creative Every Day, as well as adding this post to my tutorials page.