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