Prima Marketing's PPP March Challenge

Hi Guys!

It's been awhile since I last blogged. I'm glad I managed to squeeze out some time to craft. My colour scheme was inspired by Prima Marketing's PPP mood board. 

Look at all those lovely shades of green and teal! 

I first painted my box with black gesso from Prima Finnabair, and let it dry thoroughly before I add more paints.

As usual, I got too engrossed with layering paints that I forgot to take pictures in between step. Sigh~

Anyway, to achieve this result, I painted a coat of white crackle texture paste from Prima Finnabair. I had actually experimented it a couple of times. I realised Prima crackle has finer cracks as compared to Ranger's, the whole cracked look was pretty neat as the cracks are fine, it serves well as details. 

So I added thick coats of white crackle and I think I completely covered the black gesso base. Haha. I let it dry naturally as I realised the cracks look nicer that way as compared to heat dried. I proceeded with the colours using 13 Art's Pastel Spray in Blue and Teal (I think) mixed with teal mica powder by Prima Finnabair. I also added tints of yellow from Shimmerz to give it some highlights. 

Then I watered down my Prima Finnabair white and black gesso and splattered it all over the box. When everything was nice and dried, I mixed Kaisercraft's Gloss Varnish with a tad bit of Marion Smith's Whisper powder. I HAVE TO SAY, that thing is crazy sparkly, so used with caution! Hahah. So I painted the varnish all over the box to seal the paints. 

Embellishment time!

All of these flowers are from Prima. I added some paper leaves die cuts from Maggie Holmes as well as altered the flourish chipboard die cut from Sizzix Tim Holtz with Prima Finnabair White Sand Texture Paste with my yellow Shimmerz.

Before adding finishing touches, I got distracted by my paper collections and start playing with patterned papers instead. Haha. Anyway, I pulled out this patterned paper from Prima's Sunrise Sunset Collection and cut it down to size to fit my box.

I watercoloured it such that it'll fit the colour scheme.

For the inside of the box, I picked this chevron patterned paper from Maggie Holmes. 

And there you have it! The final look of my altered box!

:)

I brushed a light coat of gesso on the flowers to help them blend in better as well as give the flowers some highlights. I added some clear dewdrops from Robin's Nest. I also mixed glass beads with Clear Gesso and gold mica powder from Prima Finnabair (used clear gesso instead of soft gel just because it was beside me, haha). I poured from bronze glitter on top of my mixture while it's still wet such that the glitter will adhere to my self-made texture paste. 

Here are some close-ups.

I used tart tins! :)))

The cracks are so gorgeous! 

So that's all for today!

I'm glad I made this altered box in time for the submission of March's PPP. Haha.

Seeya soon! 

Let me know what you think of the box! :)

Guest Designer for Frosted Designs

Hi Guys!

I'm so honoured to be invited on this fabulous team at Frosted Designs as a Guest Designer. This is my first ever designer post so I'm super excited!

I made a little 6x6 inches canvas piece meant for home decor for this tutorial. 

I first started out with priming my canvas with heavy white gesso by Prima Finnabair. I then sprayed randomly all over the canvas (Don't think too much! Just do it!) using Heidi Swapp's Gold mist, Tim Holtz Distress Spray in Tattered Rose and in Shabby Shutters. After everything dried, I pulled out my new flourish stencil from Tim Holtz and applied a thick coat of White Sand Texture Paste from Prima Finnabair. 

I have to say this texture paste has got pretty interesting texture after dried. It dries shiny and rough. It's actually very nice to touch. As you can see from the picture, I lightly brush on some gesso to make the flourish stand out better. It sort of created a white-wash effect which was matching to the background, giving off that very antique/vintage-looking vibe.

I also brushed on a light coat of Ranger's Clear Crackle and made it more visible by watercoloring Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Brushed Corduroy. 

With a new shade of dark brown, I think it made the background stand out even more as there's now a mixture of different shades of browns and greens. 

Now that the background is done, I need to think of what to embellish it.

I gave myself a challenge to use some of the stuff that was long forgotten. Haha. Such as this Tattered  Floral Bigz die from Sizzix. I actually bought it LONG LONG LONG ago but didn't use it at all. So I cut out a couple of the same sizes and layered them up. Glued down a matching button in the centre and altered the flower with Tim Holtz Distress ink in Brushed Corduroy.

This is the final look of the canvas!

As you can see, I die cut some leaves from the Prima leaves dies for layering. I also managed to dug out a long forgotten border punch and punched a strip and glued it down vertically. Most of the flowers I used were from Prima and I also added some mica fragments in Tea Stained colour from Stampendous. I loved how the dark colour of the mica fragments increased the interest of the canvas as the rest of the colours were pretty soft. The sentiment was actually a cut out from Kaisercraft's patterned paper. I also painted a light coat of gesso on the outer petals of the flowers to give some highlights. It also had the effect of pulling everything together. 

Here are some close-ups shots. 

I enjoyed the process of making this canvas. The colour scheme is actually pretty challenging for me as I never thought green and light pink (that's the original colours of the sprays, but everything became brownish after they dried on canvas. Mediums can be unpredictable! Hahah) would go well together and this is my first time succeeding in creating a vintage layout. My previous attempts didn't work out as my style of embellishing stuff is not vintage at all so I'm super happy that I can finally strike the 'vintage' theme off my to-do list as well as using those long forgotten products. Haha. 

So...That's all for today. 

I hope you like my post and also feel inspired to try out mixed media if you haven't. 

Cheers! :)