I am so pleased to be a guest over at Frilly and Funkie today where the host is the lovely Suzz and the theme is 'It's not easy being Green'. In honour of Earth day which is tomorrow we are to create an upcycled project and to repurpose an existing item, recycle an element that would usually be thrown away or use scraps in a creative way. On this project I've taken lots of scraps destined for the bin and altered, adapted, recycled and upcycled elements.
I started with a tin that has been sitting on a shelf out of the way for a couple of years. I nearly threw it a while back but held onto it 'just in case', you know how you do? I decided to take it out and when I realised my new little collection of cabinet cards would fit in it, I knew where I was going with it.
I took out some media acrylics and a piece of dry kitchen roll and dabbed burnt sienna all over and heat dried it. Of course metal gets hot so we need to be very careful we do not burn ourselves.
The next layer I used burnt umber and dabbed it over randomly leaving some of the burnt sienna showing and dry.
I repeated the random dabbing with paynes grey and heat dried. Now we a beginning to see a lot less of the pattern underneath.
The trick now is to use all three colours together so they are wet at the same time and you can blend them together and over the previous layers.
The using a paint brush paint a coat of quinacridone all over.
Then finish with very light and random patches of all three colours again.
As you can see there are minute changes in the last three layers but you see it happen when you do it yourself irl and you have control of what colour goes where.
As you can see there are minute changes in the last three layers but you see it happen when you do it yourself irl and you have control of what colour goes where.
I left the tin overnight and put the lid on, I wanted to see if the paints would get rubbed/scratched off with opening and closing the lid, but I'm pleased to say there was no wear, however I am sure there will be over time and I don't think a layer of varnish would prevent it.
The next day I scraped on a layer of transparent crackle glaze and left it to dry.
The next day I scraped on a layer of transparent crackle glaze and left it to dry.
I took the time then to decide on what embellishments I wanted to add.
Birdcages - given a watery coat of cobalt blue hue and metallic silver mixed and dried. Some areas were sanded back and then a watery wash of quinacridone gold painted over. More sanding back and ground espresso ink blended in. These were saved from my friend who was going to throw them out, they are muffin bands.
The butterfly - this was a mop up piece and painted so I didn't waste paint from a previous project - it had been given a rough coat of phthalo blue mixed with translucent white. I blended ground espresso over it and flicked it with water, then dried. I splattered watery cobalt turquoise over it, dried and repeated with watered down metallic silver. Next came a coat of quinacridone gold wash, dried and a quinacridone gold glaze (ultra matte varnish coloured with the quin gold paint). Later I decided this was a bit boring so I painted over with the clear crackle glaze to see what happened. Yes some tiny cracks appeared when I rubbed in white antiquing cream and to take the shine off of it I gave it a coat of ultra matte varnish, oh and that's not until I had sanded and inked the edges again!
The bottle - was left over like the butterfly and had the same coat of phthalo blue and translucent white. I gave it a very thin coat of translucent crackle glaze and when dry blended over ground espresso again but it looked too dark and quite uninteresting so I painted over a thin coat of white crackle paste and I love how it picked up the distress ink as it dried. I finished off with some watery cobalt turquoise and quin gold and once more sanded and blended the ground espresso on the edges. Now it looks better.
The arch - was left over from another project and I think had been dipped in quinacridone gold and paynes grey. I took it, sanded the edges and blended in ground espresso. What happened next was totally unexpected - the distress crayons and mini latticework stencil were lying on the floor (as they do!!) so I decided to bring in some pattern and hey look what it ended up like - love it.
The chloe stems were left after designing a workshop project and I had one die-cut in peach and another in cream, I decided just to give them a quin wash and then a little paynes grey.
The image was printed from the computer and needed aging and as I was enjoying crackling everything I remembered my friend Julia's images on a project where she had cracked them too. So I got out some new Tim Holtz goodies, coloured the image with distress crayons and a water brush and then sealed it with crazing medium. Not sure I like it really!
Look what happened to the lid when I went back to it and the crackle glaze had dried and I had blended patina green antiquing cream over it. Maybe I had got it a tad too thick in places with the glaze?
I die-cut Tim's new lace thinlits dies three times from some waste card that had been given some rusting and patina treatment a while back and adhered them to the sides of the tin.
Birdcages - given a watery coat of cobalt blue hue and metallic silver mixed and dried. Some areas were sanded back and then a watery wash of quinacridone gold painted over. More sanding back and ground espresso ink blended in. These were saved from my friend who was going to throw them out, they are muffin bands.
The butterfly - this was a mop up piece and painted so I didn't waste paint from a previous project - it had been given a rough coat of phthalo blue mixed with translucent white. I blended ground espresso over it and flicked it with water, then dried. I splattered watery cobalt turquoise over it, dried and repeated with watered down metallic silver. Next came a coat of quinacridone gold wash, dried and a quinacridone gold glaze (ultra matte varnish coloured with the quin gold paint). Later I decided this was a bit boring so I painted over with the clear crackle glaze to see what happened. Yes some tiny cracks appeared when I rubbed in white antiquing cream and to take the shine off of it I gave it a coat of ultra matte varnish, oh and that's not until I had sanded and inked the edges again!
The bottle - was left over like the butterfly and had the same coat of phthalo blue and translucent white. I gave it a very thin coat of translucent crackle glaze and when dry blended over ground espresso again but it looked too dark and quite uninteresting so I painted over a thin coat of white crackle paste and I love how it picked up the distress ink as it dried. I finished off with some watery cobalt turquoise and quin gold and once more sanded and blended the ground espresso on the edges. Now it looks better.
The arch - was left over from another project and I think had been dipped in quinacridone gold and paynes grey. I took it, sanded the edges and blended in ground espresso. What happened next was totally unexpected - the distress crayons and mini latticework stencil were lying on the floor (as they do!!) so I decided to bring in some pattern and hey look what it ended up like - love it.
The chloe stems were left after designing a workshop project and I had one die-cut in peach and another in cream, I decided just to give them a quin wash and then a little paynes grey.
The image was printed from the computer and needed aging and as I was enjoying crackling everything I remembered my friend Julia's images on a project where she had cracked them too. So I got out some new Tim Holtz goodies, coloured the image with distress crayons and a water brush and then sealed it with crazing medium. Not sure I like it really!
Look what happened to the lid when I went back to it and the crackle glaze had dried and I had blended patina green antiquing cream over it. Maybe I had got it a tad too thick in places with the glaze?
I die-cut Tim's new lace thinlits dies three times from some waste card that had been given some rusting and patina treatment a while back and adhered them to the sides of the tin.
Then I put everything together to create a collage on the lid with all the elements I had altered and saved from destruction.
And here are my cabinet cards I bought at Brick Lane Market a while back, they're 2 1/2 x 4 ins. Two of them have dates on the back of 1870 and 1872, I think they are amazing.
I think they will feel right at home in this 'ancient' time-worn tin!!!
Thanks to the fabulous team at Frilly and Funkie for having me as their guest today.
hugs Brenda xx
A quote I found and included in my Frilly and Funkie write up.
“Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago.”
― Erma Bombeck
