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!
