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

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

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

Love - Mixed Media Canvas - Video Tutorial

Hello Friends !!

Bela Shah here with my latest mixed media canvas.

Mixed media is so much fun and this time I have tried to do a project which is out of my comfort zone … I took it up as a challenge and I am thrilled with the way this looks right now... I know that this is mixed media canvas but I kind of remember my kodiakanal trip where I saw beautiful hydrangea flowers... as this project has similar colors...

Also I would like to see your creations so tag me on Facebook so I know how much this post has inspired you. The video tutorial will be super helpful where you can see how I have worked with Little Birdie Craft products to make this lovely project.

Few close Ups of the project ….

Please check out the video tutorial for the project. Don't forget to leave some love and comments !!!

https://youtu.be/yGkf4bhdhYM

Love & Hugs

 Bela 

Dream - Mixed Media Canvas

Hello Friends ,
This is Bela from India and today I m here with a beautiful mixed media canvas.
I absolutely love creating mixed media panels and canvas… the best part about mixed media is that the outcome is always unpredictable and its so fascinating to see the end result as its always a surprise to even who is creating it.



So today I created this canvas with Little Birdie mixed media products . I had used up all the ink in some of my doodling pens and thought I would use them for my canvas… so I used 5 pens and their caps, some rings, bottle caps, pearls, metal butterfly, flowers, corners and sentiment, etc. for the compilation. Added mixed media fiber paste in the background for the extra texture. Covered the pens with mixed media 2 in 1 paste and added mixed media stones for more texture. Then I covered everything with black gesso. Dry brushed everything with mixed media 2 in 1 paste. Then I sprayed it with Lemon zing  splash , lime splash, grape crush and dried it . Then again to bring out textures I dry brushed with white gesso. I enjoyed making this one .. I hope you all like it too.



Here is the video tutorial for the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVPw27HduiE&t=21s
I hope this post is creatively inspires all of you.
Thank you for stopping by.
Love & Hugs
Bela

The list of products I used are :

• Mixed Media Stones
• Mixed Media Paste – White
• Mixed Media Fiber Paste
• Color Splash Lime Green 
• Color Splash Lemon Zing
• Color Splash Grape Crush

Eyes - Mixed Media Panel

Hello Friends,
How are u all doing today!!!!
Its raining in India and I love it when I get to see all greenery around me when rains washes the trees  and they look more greener, more prettier and more lush. And as they say beauty lies in the eyes of beholder... so My new Mixed Media project is inspired from the eyes that are beautiful and the eyes that see beauty and the green n yellows n pinks and blues of the trees and nature.... I hope u all like it as it was challenging for me to use so many colors and still get the effect that I was looking for....

This idea was on my mind from a long time and today I finally finished. I mounted my paper on 2mm mdf to make it sturdy as I knew I was gonna use lot of water and I din want my paper to warp. then i started playing with my embellishments.

 I not only used wooden embellishments but this time I used resin, fiber, metal and also few paper die cuts for the look that I needed. I used grainy texture paste for my stenciling and few sprays from lindy's and few color splash from little birdie too .

While compiling this piece I just didn't want to fill up the whole face with mixed media elements as I also wanted to conserve the beauty of the girl in the picture that's the reason i played with only half part of the face and half I kept it plain with just touch of colors here and there.

So I  hope you like this project just as much as I love it not to forget the process while I was making it. This is the completed look of my project.

I hope this post will be creatively inspiring. Thank you so much for stopping by. Would love to see what you feel about this project in comment section.

Love & Hugs
Bela