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