Mixed Media Canvas - Video Tutorial

Hello to all my crafty Friends....

This is Bela from India with yet another interesting  Design Team Post of Mixed Media canvas for Little Birdie Crafts. This time I hope everyone creates with me as we don't need any fancy or expensive embellishments for this canvas as I have used any junk lying around the house or you can get these things from any junk shop at throw away rates.

We all feel that we need lovely embellishments to make a lovely art piece... but what I feel is if you have an eye for the art and right balance of using the things and a very different and unique way of using the colors then the piece you make whether it is out of junk or fine elements will turn out to be a masterpiece.

If you see closely I have used some rusted nails, screws, hinges, nut bolts, and some waste hardware parts to make my main composition. then I added few numbers and come wooden cutouts to given this canvas a definition.

I hope you find this creatively inspiring and will try it out for urself.

For the complete video tutorial click the link below. don't forget to leave a comment if you like this video.

Love & Hugs

Bela

A Beautiful Box in Shabby Chic Style - Video Tutorial

Hello Friends,

This is Bela from India with a video tutorial for an altered box in shabby chic style. There are lot of people who are new to mixed media and I have seen that they are very apprehensive when it comes to gesso or sprays or paints. Basically any kind of wet material. So this time I have come up with something in which you don't have to use wet material and still get a beautiful piece of art. once you are comfortable with this kind of art you can slowly add textures and sprays to your project.  This project is inspired by Marta Lapkowska's card tutorials.

So here's a beautiful keepsake box which can be perfect for gifting which can be used as watch box, jewelry box or a kerchief box etc. Best part about this project is the beautiful Little Birdie flowers and the lovely papers from their store and u can create wonders. This pack of flowers were my favorite and I was holding on to them to create something extremely pretty.

With the papers, flowers, few fussy cut elements, laces, chipboard, and ribbons I have achieved this beautiful layering and the gorgeous pastels colors give it such an awesome look to the box.

So here's the link of the video tutorial  for the project.

Thank you for stopping by 

Love & Hugs

Bela

Hope & Love – Altered Mixed Media Bag Tutorial

Hello crafty Friends…. Greetings from me. This is Bela and today on Little Birdie Blog I am very excited to share with you a step by step tutorial of an altered bag. I always used to think why to alter a bag? what not do the same kind of layout on canvas? But when I got an amazing response to my previous altered bag I thought why not make one more. I got lovely compliments from friends on Facebook saying that they loved the bag and how it can be used to gifting without wrapping the gift. they also said the person who receives the gift will get 2 gifts at the same time. The bag and also what inside of the bag !!!

So here’s the step by step to yet another Bag tutorial which is so different from the previous one and yet it turned out amazingly beautiful. Also this will go to my swap partner of August as the theme of the swap was to make some artwork with whatever we have at home. I hope she likes it as much as I Loved making it.

Here I have taken a Domino’s Pizza takeaway bag and added some old book pages here and there for the vintage look. Then I added the texture with steampunk stencil with grainy texture paste which is my favorite from the store. Also added a long piece of off white card stock which I distressed with scissors and added some brown oxide ink for old look.

My next step was to use the MDF leftover from the steampunk cutting and cover the whole thing with black gesso.

I added the  layers of old book, steampunk texture, waste mdf , plain distressed cardstock , corrugated sheet and the vintage picture of a girl which was digitally photoshopped with script that matched totally with my old book script . I chose it as I felt it was so balanced yet very classy and coated with acrylic soft matte gel to protect it. I also added more stenciling  with the grainy texture paste on the right side of the picture as it was empty there. also added splatters of white and black gesso everywhere on the bag except the face.

I added the  layers of old book, steampunk texture, waste mdf , plain distressed cardstock , corrugated sheet and the vintage picture of a girl which was digitally photoshopped with script that matched totally with my old book script . I chose it as I felt it was so balanced yet very classy and coated with acrylic soft matte gel to protect it. I also added more stenciling  with the grainy texture paste on the right side of the picture as it was empty there. also added splatters of white and black gesso everywhere on the bag except the face.

My next step was to add some beautiful yet subtle flowers from little birdie as they not only gave a little feminine touch to the very hardcore mixed media but also made the girl look beautiful as if she had those flowers in her hair. I love that look.

Last but not the least I wanted to add a perfect sentiment for this lovely upcycled piece of art. So I added a perfect sentiment which says HOPE & LOVE MAKE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. Isn’t it perfect ? So here’s My beautiful vintage bag which looks super classy with the perfect picture, perfect flowers and a perfect sentiment which really compliments the shabby background.

I really really really hope that you all give this tutorial a shot and send me your versions of it. Thank you for stopping by.

Love & Hugs

Bela

Friends Forever - A Mixed Media Altered Box Shabby Chic Style - step by step tutorial

Hey Friends,
Today I am here with a beautiful project and the step by step tutorial of a beautiful Altered Box I did for PRIKA.
First of all I would like to thank Priyanka for this awesome opportunity and also for the patience that she showed when I wasn't able to do the project  couple of months ago due to family obligation.
Thank you once again.

I am also putting this up for Mixed media Place - August Challenge.

so without further ado lets see the step by step procedure for this project.

I took a waste led light box and added a corrugated sheet on the lid and applied gesso all over on the lids sides and the flap. Its a very good quality box with magnets that's why I didn't have the heart to throw it. after the application of White Gesso I added some MDF left overs to give a beautiful texture and also coated them with gesso. It will look something like this.

Once the gesso was dry I started building up the composition. Till this point I didn't know which colors I will be using for this project. I usually make vintage and metallic kind of boxes so this time I thought of doing something different. So I thought of using peach , yellows and pinks for my project .

 Played around with the flowers and wooden embellishments and thought of using lots of die cuts for the shabby chic look. 

I sprayed lemon zing, hot pink and tangerine color splashes from little birdie crafts to get the look and the color that matches the flowers. Diluted it with water and took away the extra color with the tissue.  Added the beautiful flowers from little birdie , leaf die cuts, few mulberry roses, and a lovely quote " Friends for Life "

Added beautiful pearls in big medium n small size. Added lovely organza ribbons to add more shabby chic look. I hope you like the Beautiful Altered  Box in Shabby Chic style.

Would love to see your creations from this inspiration.

Love & Hugs 

Bela

Hope- Mixed Media Altered Folder - Video Tutorial

Hey Friends !!!
Greetings from India !!! Hope you all are doing well and are ready for mixed media tutorial which I enjoyed a lot as it was quite different from my usual work. I really wish you all try this at least once on anything that u have at home - like a diary or box or any plain canvas.

I had a bank folder lying around and I had kept it thinking that I would use it for some art work for sure. So today is the day !!!

I am totally in love with it as it turned out much different and far more better than I had in my mind. So here's a walk through how I did it and u can check out the video for the tutorial. I started by using grainy texture paste with the stencil to give some texture to the base as the folder was just plain . to add little more interest in the empty space I added few die cuts. then I started with using some twigs , some metal and some steampunk gears for building up my composition.

Added black gesso for priming . I thought to finish the whole piece with metallic tints. Since I didn't have the metallic color in teal  added gold to my plain acrylic paint. I dint want my embellishment to merge with the base and wanted them to stand out so I did black gesso on it again and gave metallic tint to all my embellishments. Added little gold touches to the background for a more balanced look.

In the end I wanted everything to look perfect so added gesso with sponge on the edges as the inside of the folder is also black. For more distressed and worn out look I added little bit of black from the sponge on the textures too till I achieved the look that I wanted.

I hope you all give this project a definite try. Don't forget to show some love in form of comments. If you don't understand something you all know where to find me :) I will be more than happy to help.

Check out the complete video Tutorial on the link below: leave some love & comments for more motivation if you like the project.

Love & Hugs

Bela

Raw and Wild - Mixed Media Altered Bag

Hello to all my crafty Friends !!!!

It feels like I am here after ages.... As last month I wasn't able to do any art for personal obligations... But I am back with a beautiful and easy project which can get you a wow effect from anyone who you will gift it to and that I am absolutely sure of!!!

I have altered a simple paper bag into a beautifully transformed artwork with the most famous Little Birdie chalk paints.... If you think that the chalk paints are only for decoupage then here's a version where you can put it to multiple use by using it for mixed media. I tried it for the first time and I love it …

So without further ado lets jump to the step by step tutorial of this lovely project:-

I took a paper bag made out of craft cardstock.

Then I adhered some papers from old book randomly to add a layer to the area where I was gonna do my mixed media. I also used stencil and texture paste to give some texture at few areas here and there. Once that was done I added white gesso on to the papers and wiped it out from certain areas so I can see the text of the book pages..... once that was dried thoroughly I applied  the marsh green and muted teal chalk colors randomly.....

Once everything was dried completely took the same chevron stencil and added some texture with black gesso and also added the leftover papers from die cuts...…  It will look something like this. basically just adding few layers …

Also added the twine the same color as bag just for some balance and texture and added more chalk paint wherever it was needed.

Usually I add lots of embellishments to my mixed media projects but since this was a bag I dint want to make it too heavy or bulky so I added the layers and textures with die cuts. I added some circle die cuts in black n white and some honeycomb die cuts in white. I adhered everything with heavy gel medium as I didn't want anything to fall apart once I was done. I chose owl picture as my focal point cut bit to the right size added a photo mat with a normal cardstock and stressed the edges.

Any project looks incomplete without the beautiful little birdie flowers. so I added beautiful flowers in teal and white around the picture in a very random way... no symmetry at all.to balance my whole layout in which I have used die cuts I added die cut leaves rather than the normal leaves .

Last but not the least I added splatters all over with diluted white & black gesso. I think they really complimented my black n white textures and black and white die cuts which I used for the project. once everything was done and I was satisfied dried everything thoroughly I added random strokes with black gesso on the crown n base of the bag to highlight the artwork and give more depth to my project.

Its a very raw kind of mixed media and owl looks super wild so I will name this project Raw & Wild mixed media altered bag.  I absolutely enjoyed this art work where I used totally new materials like chalk paints and heavy body gel from the store and I m super pleased with the results. Hope this post creatively inspire you all. so until next time Happy Crafting.

Love & Hugs

Bela

Mixed Media Altered Box - Pictorial - Tutorial

Hey Friends,

This is Bela from India and today I have a Beautiful altered mixed media box for you using the amazing Little Birdie metallic tints. I hope you all like it and find this post creatively inspiring.

Here is the step by step tutorial to make this beautiful box.

I had this black box.... I started by using the left over chipboard which I cut according to the box side to add my first layer.  I like to add layers to my mixed media projects. Added a coat of black gesso on it.

Then I started playing around with my embellishments ... I had a broken oval frame which I used in this along with some steampunk gears, butterfly, big pearls and Little Birdie flowers. Your arrangement should look something like this. I also used a beautiful picture for my frame which I protected with a coat of soft gel medium matte.

I adhering the picture to the frame from behind.  Coated the flowers with black gesso . These flowers had shimmer and were of super thick textured paper so the effect that I got after the coloring was awesome.

Once everything is adhered and coated with gesso, your box will look something like this.

After drying the gesso thoroughly I started to dry brush the box with silver oak metallic paint. Then I added 2 of my favorite colors that is Caribbean teal and Glazed berries to give the effect I wanted.... I absolutely love this combination which is very different and unique.

After the dry brushes it looks absolutely gorgeous.... the black box altered into an awesome box that can be gifted to some one or used as jewelry box or for keep sake.

Once the cover of the box was ready I felt something is missing on the sides and I shouldn't leave it bare. So I used the same metallic paints and dabbed on the steampunk style stencil to give a balanced look to the box on all the four sides.

I loved the box so much that I clicked so many pictures in different positions and cant help but share all with you. It will also help you'll to understand all the dimensions too...

I hope you all love this project just as much as I did.

Would love to see your creations inspired by this one.

Love & Hugs

Bela