Trying A New Technique

 I was inspired by Diane at My Art Journal to try a new technique this week.  I have quite an accumulation of bits and pieces of costume jewelry and this seemed like a perfect use for them.

 I picked out a group of random earrings, pins and pendants and used E6000 to attach them all to the top of a wooden cigar box I had in my stash.  I let it dry overnight.

 Next I painted over the whole thing with Glidden Gripper.  Once that was dry I went over the jewelry pieces with watered down black acrylic paint and then dabbed it back off with a wet paper towel.

 I went back in with silver, violet, turquoise and green mixed with pearlizing medium and just randomly dry brushed, wiping off what I didn't want with the wet paper towel.  I let that dry then painted the rest of the top black.

I wanted something more than a plain black background, but not too busy, so I used my fall-back black and white dot paper.  I got out my Fiskars Shape Cutter and one of the oval templates was just the right size to fit around the jewelry collage.  I inked a bit with black Stazon then used Mod Podge to glue it on the top.

 I used the same paper on the sides and then inked a little more.

 Next, I needed to give it a more finished look with borders.  I had some braid trim in the my stash that was lurking somewhere between lavender, pink and gray.  An odd color indeed but ALMOST what I needed.  I used the same colors I had used on the jewelry thingy and did some more random dry brushing.

 I used hot glue to attach the trim around the bottom edge...

 And around the embellishment on top.

 I painted the inside black then covered the bottom with a coordinating paper.

I decided to leave the original label in the box because I like the logo and just added some layered paper petals with a tiny cabochon in the center.  I finished off the outside with a good coat of clear spray acrylic to seal everything.  I didn't take another picture after that last step but it did get everything that final "blending" that it needed.
I hope you are finding time to try something new!