Saturday 27 March 2010

Altered Element DT Upcycling Challenge - Beaded Boxes

One of the exciting aspects of being on the new Altered Element DT is that Lynne is going to source charity shop items for us to upcycle! I was particularly delighted about this as I have bought things in charity shops all my life, and since I've been stamping I have looked at everything differently - but of course it is more challenging when the item to alter has been chosen for you as normally I would buy something because I have an idea already. It's sort of scary, but in a good way!

This is the item Lynne chose for me:-



My immediate thought was to keep it as a necklace and decorate it, as I love jewellery, and knew I would wear it, but I felt in the interests of altered art, I should take it apart! I have also received from Lynne these glorious Lumiere paints, which I was keen to incorporate:-

 

In addition to the beads and paints, you will need:-

Crafty Individuals Stamps CI 206, 235, and 252 (www.craftyindividuals.co.uk)
White tissue paper - nothing special
Mod Podge or Gel Medium (Altered Element)
StazOn Jet Black
Selection of Ribbons and Trims
German Scrap Border or Metal Leaf Sheet - Gold Colour (from the Altered Element) and Adhesive Paper Lace
Round Boxes
Sand Paper or Tough Emery Board
Inktense or Other Coloured Pencils
Selection of Beads and Gems

This is what I made:-



I sanded the beads, and then painted them with the Lumiere paints, some in gold with splodges of jade, some just jade, and some of the small ones in the sapphire blue. I was going for jewel colours. I then stamped some Crafty Individual Flower and Swirl images (CI 206, 235, 252 ) onto tissue paper using StazOn Jet Black, and coloured them with Inktense pencils. I adhered the pieces of tissue to the beads with Mod Podge, and then stuck them to the round boxes with strong adhesive. For the largest box I added gems and beads, and a piece of adhesive lace covered with gold leaf around the edge to mimic German Scrap, as I didn't have any, but you can get either this, or the gold leaf, from the Altered Element. For the smaller boxes I used the smallest beads in Jade and Sapphire and added some additional pink faceted beads, and added ribbon trims around the sides. With the benefit of hindsight, I think the stamping showed up more vividly on the Gold paint, rather than the Jade, so if I hadn't committed myself already, that is what I would have done.

Thank you, Lynne, for giving me this opportunity. It was particularly lovely that you asked us what we fancied working with and listened to us, as you have given me a chance to dabble more with paints

9 comments:

  1. Ooooooo Lucy, these look fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great charity shop find there from Lynne and the boxes look lovely with the stamped discs to decorate them - great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is amazing how you have transformed a plain, wooden necklace into something that is quite unique. Cannot wait to see what you do with next month's Upcycle Challenge. Lynne x

    ReplyDelete
  4. really lovely colours and a very novel use of the necklace -can't wait to see it for real xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. more brilliant sourcing by Lynne, I love what you have done with it, dont think I would be brave enough to take it apart!

    ReplyDelete
  6. These are gorgeous Lucy! You're so clever at decorating boxes!xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely decorated boxes Lucy, I love the colours.
    xxx Hazel.

    ReplyDelete
  8. These boxes are super Lucy. I love the Lumiere paints too but must admit I've not used mine for ages......note to get them out and in action !

    ReplyDelete