Mixed Media Canvas Collage: "Junk Princess"

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I made this mixed media canvas collage for my Craft room to brighten it up and also to show that everything can be beautiful. Some of the items I used from around my home were an outlet plate, hair cutting comb, old hinges, scrap wire, puzzle pieces, scrabble letters, buttons, wooden cabinet knob, a spring, and computer components. I also pulled paper flowers I made, fake flowers, butterflies, lace, and gauze from my craft stash. I used the white gauze around the area with the words by painting it with Mod Podge and then bunching the gauze to make thick texture in an oval shape. 

This type of collage is a very fun project to do. You can plan ahead of time or just go with the flow as I do. I started out just gluing scrapbook paper on a blank canvas, placed gesso on everything, but the areas I wanted to show and then began placing my metal items, flowers, etc. Every time I wanted to add something on the top of something else I would paint some gesso on the bottom piece, let it dry and then use E6000 glue to hold them together. In the very end I painted just about everything with a thin layer of gesso and then I used Martha Stewart's Pearl Paints and some regular acrylic craft paints that I made into sprays to give the entire art piece color. When I used the Gesso over everything I didn't worry about any color showing through from the items I used, unless they were dark an ugly. For example, the original colors of the flowers looked nice muted with Gesso so I didn't have to use more than one layer of Gesso on them, but the rusty electrical plate, bolts and washers had to be covered completely.

Give this project a try.

Happy Crafting! 

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted
All Rights Reserved

Altered Box: Loving Blue, Brown and Green

  

I wanted to give an altered box a try and I'm so glad that I did. I had been storing my lace pieces in an ugly box. No matter where you sit it or how you stand it, it's ugly! So I gathered my homemade paint sprays and glitter mists together, some Gesso, modeling paste, cream colored, yellow and white flowers, brown ribbon, a birds nest, a blue bird and got busy. 

 Before

  

The Result is Fabulous!

I'm so excited! I am now hooked on altering boxes and I'm looking at all those other ugly boxes I have that I'm storing my craft items in. This would make a great gift and/or gift package too.

Steps I took to make my Altered Box:

1. Apply Gesso to the entire outside of the box in thin coats (I used my heat tool to dry the coats of Gesso quickly). You can also use paint instead of Gesso, but I used Gesso to get more texture).

2. I used my home-made paint sprays and glimmer mists to color the box and my heat tool between colors to keep them from mixing too much. I also sprayed enough some of the time that I could get the colors to run which I think is a nice effect.

3. Use your ink stamps to decorate the box as you wish. I didn't do a lot of stamping, just a few here and there.

4. Using a template with modeling paste allowed me to create the leaves and flowers on the sides and top of the box.

5. You can decorate your box with silk flowers, make your own flowers or use something else such as Christmas decorations, etc. Just let your creative juices flow. I used white, cream and yellow silk flowers and sprayed them with my blue glimmer mist. Since the flowers were different colors they came out different shades of blue and the yellow flowers became green.

6. After the flowers dried I began arranging them with the bird and nest on the box. I used a hot glue gun to adhere them to the box lid and each other.

7. I wanted some sentiments (a little inspiration) so I found some foam letters and placed words on my box that could be read from different directions since it sits on an open shelf.

That was it. It took me just a few hours to make. I let the modeling paste dry overnight before going to the next step.

Give making an Altered Box a shot and please share as I would love to see them.

"At Sea" Mixed Media Collage

Hello and welcome to Heartedly Handcrafted! "At Sea" is my first mixed media canvas collage and my first major piece of arts or crafts anything. I had been watching YouTube videos for craft ideas and fell in love with this art form. Then I decided to start this blog to share it with you. I think YouTube had created an arts and crafts monster. I'm obsessed and want to try it all.

Everyone has a junk drawer, garbage, broken decorations, etc. Some people have an earring without a match, an old watch, seashells from that beach vacation, old fake flowers, kids small toys (like Lego), a drawer knob and so forth. These can all be used to create your mixed media canvas collage. 

You don't even need an actual canvas. A scarp piece of wood, metal, old picture frame, a box, book, anything that you can stick stuff too will work. What you will need to by is some strong glue such as E6000, Mod Podge which you can get at Walmart now, Gesso and some craft paints. 

I purchased inexpensive crafts paints at my local craft store. I also made some sprays. How to create your own sprays can be found under the blog tab Craft Supplies, Ideas and Tips or you can just google it and decide which idea you like best.

The people who became my inspiration, their blogs/websites and one of their demonstration videos for two of them:

Anna Dabrowski - Finnabair  
Leanne of Luvlee Scrappin (video). 
Gabrielle Pollacco (video)

Happy Crafting!