Altered and upcycled box tutorial

Hello, everyone.  I do hope you are having a lovely weekend.

If you follow me from WOYWW you may have seen an altered box hiding at the back in various stages of altering.

Well, I finished it and thought I would do a tutorial.  Its a little photo heavy as I still cannot fathom why youtube takes so long to upload (hrs for a 3 minute video!!), but if you'd like to learn how I made some embellishments for pennies then read on.


 I started with an empty box.  It contained a natural sweetener and the box seemed too good to chuck so I thought I would alter it and turn it into a treasure chest.

This is the before

 This is the after.  It cost virtually pennies to make!

 

I painted the box with acrylics, a mix of brown, black and green.  I then dried it with a heat gun and added some gold, black and green wax to the edges, buffed it up and painted a satin water based acylic varnish over the box to seal it.

To make the embellishments I made some moulds from a metal cog and a skull and cross bones pendant.  

I used a hot glue gun to fill the moulds

 When dry, pop them out of the moulds, there may be some overspill but there is a real easy fix

Tidy up the embellishments with scissors.  I use my Tim Holtz scissors, they have amazing micro serrated blades and this means they are a great work horse.

 When they are all tidied up I covered them in black acrylic dabber and then rubbed gold wax over them and buffed them up.  I sealed them with the same acrylic  sealant and now they are ready to use.

 I glued them to the box with multi medium and added some hinges that I stamped with a paper artsy stamp onto grunge paper and cut out.  I coloured the hinges with copper distress stains and attached them with mini brads

I also made a lock with a paper artsy stamp on grunge paper and added a couple of larger brads at the front which I texturised by walloping with a hammer!!

So there you have it.  A treasure chest ready to fill with whatever you choose.  I was thinking scrunching up some brightly coloured tissue paper inside and filling the box with chocolates!!  

Either way, I think this is a great gift box, a one off and best of all its upcycled and cost pennies...whats not to like?

I'd love to know what you think.

Happy crafting

Kyla

A Dyan and Dina inspired stencil tutorial and journal page

Evening all.  I awoke to snow this morning!  Now I know for some of you that is not unusual, but here in the south west of the UK we don't get that much, and certainly not that fast, 5" in a few hours...its covered up all my weeds and dead plants in the garden and it looks so pretty now!

Have you been watching the CHA 2013 video's on the web?  I know I have.  They are so inspiring and I now have a rather long lust list of Tim Holtz new goodies (his new paints look fabulous) and Dylusions (WHITE spray ink!!  I need it, plus ALL the new colours!!).  

However, after spending SO long clearing out my craft space I vowed that anything coming into the room needed to be productive and get used (that includes me!!  I admit I often sit here, Spotify or BBS6 music playing and before I know it an hour has passed me by!!)  and the fact that January is rather a lean month, so I thought I would use up some more of my stash to see if I could make new stash.

Inspired by both Dina Wakely and Dyan Reavley (they are both so talented) I decided to make a figure mask from some leftover plastic.

I chose a figure from a magazine

I traced it with a permanent marker

and cut it out so I had both a postitive and negative image.  

I inked through the stencil with Dylusion inks and then used black acrylic with gold interference paint to add some depth, using the figure cutout to protect the image.
 

I stamped through with a Dylusions background stamp (I use these all the time they are so versatile) and also stamped it with white stayz on using the stamp without an acrylic block so I could bend the stamp slightly and use part of the image.

I added circles of white paint (using the dylusions ink lid as a stamp).

I love the effect, the stencil is no where  near as good as the dylusions one (in either detail or quality) BUT its a great way for me to see if it is a product I would use in the future before I look to making the investment (which lets face it will probably happen quite soon!!).

That's it for now, I am off for a warming cuppa (or maybe some mulled cider.....much more suitable with the snow outside I think!).

Happy crafting

Kyla
 

 

My first tutorial

So, last weeks WOYWW has 2 mysterious sheets on my desk.  I have been having a play with my alcohol inks.  At a recent craft show it was demoed and I thought I'd have a go and instead of using the pieces as backgrounds I'd run them through my new die cutter (still loving the big shot-if your in 2 minds about buying one or the Vagabond-go for the big shot....I've cut metal, leather etc all with my rheumatoid arthritic hands no problems, and its a FRACTION of the price...thought the vagabond does look very cool-not being a pink laydee I wish they'd make it it just black, or maybe purple...ooh, purple and black, that's be nice....I digress!).

Anyhoo, I thought I'd take some photo's and try my first tutorial, please let me know that you think.

 Step 1

• A sheet of acetate (I used old OHP sheets from a dumpster dive!! Too tight to pay for acetate).
• dribble glossy accents (I used glossy accents and 3D art gel as I had some old stuff lying about) around the edge of the sheet, then scribble all over the sheet making sure the glossy accents overlap

 

Step 2

• drop alcohol inks onto the sheet. I made 2 sheets, one in natural hues, browns, golds and greens and another sheet with teal, purples and cerise

 Step 3

• When you have covered the entire sheet with alcohol inks add a little glitter, maybe some chopped angelina fibres

Step 4

• Crumple up some tissue paper and spread all over the sheet, pressing to down to get good adhesion.  You may want to wear gloves or use some old plastic packaging to poke the tissue paper down as my fingers got VERY stained the first time I tried this!!

 Step 5

Wait 24 hours to dry

Step 6

Use!  I put mine through the big shot, but you could punch it or use it for some nice matting and layering

This is the finished card.  I have NO idea what is wrong with blogger, the card is saved in portrait and on the screen but when its uploaded it seems to change direction!  If anyone knows why, please drop me a line and let me know any ideas?!

I hope you enjoy my first tutorial.

Happy crafting

Li'l Pidge