Tag Archives: Altered object

Gift Idea: Altered Wooden Initial

Posted on by
Reply

Wooden alphabet letters are always great embellishments for gifts. Add the letters of the first and/or last names of your friend, co-worker or loved one to any card or mini album page, and the result will be instant success 🙂

For the front cover of my most recent paper bag mini album I altered such a wooden initial.

I first added two colors of Distress Oxide ink to color its base. I also chose several Distress Crayons to decorate later, after the second step.

Once the letter had a base color, I added a texture paste and let it dry. I chose Distress Grit Paste by Tim Holtz, but you can use any paste as long as you choose one that can be colored (some pastes act as a resist, avoid those for this type of project).

I added the paste in random spots, to give the letter a dimensional texture. Distress Grit Paste is semi-translucent, which is why I colored the letter first.

Then I used the Crayons to color the paste. (Crayons work best to color Distress Grit Paste,)

Lastly, when everything had dried, I added it to the album cover as an embellishment.

So you see how you can add a very personal touch to any of your gift projects without it taking a million steps! 🙂

1-sheet Project: Altered Pencil Organizer

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a while since I showed you an altered box, so here we are 🙂

This time it’s a wooden pencil box I found in an art supply store, in which you could of course keep all kinds of memorabilia, ephemera, or paper scraps as well.

I altered it with a double-sided sheet from Stamperia’s Rose collection, and I always find it amazing that I often only need 1 sheet to alter an entire box! For other examples I can refer you to my Romantic Drawers box and to my cute little Christmas treasure chest, the latter of which I altered with 1 sheet of only 8×8 inches.

If you’ve never altered a box before and don’t know where to start, I’ve done several free video tutorials. You could start here and here.

Meanwhile, if you need some inspiration first, watch today’s video! 🙂

Tutorial: How to Change the Color of Your Earrings

Posted on by
2

This week I’m sharing a different kind of creative project: how to use your alcohol inks to change the colors of your acryllic or plastic earrings. This little hack is very handy to know and use, especially if you’re having an accessorizing crisis and are in a bind 🙂

So here we go, check out the video! The only thing you’ll need is 1 or more alcohol inks – and your earrings of course.

Tutorial: How to Alter a Jewelry Box

Posted on by
Reply

As you know I sometimes alter these nice, small boxes of all shapes and different sizes. This time, as a Christmas present for my mom, I decided to alter a jewelry box and to shoot a short tutorial while I was doing it.

By now I have several “How to alter a box” tutorial videos, all highlighting different aspects. So if you combine them all you get the entire process 🙂 :

  1. On how to lay the foundations of your project, and how to take measurements for all of your mats;
  2. On how to actually mat, and put your box back together (video below)
  3. On the creative side of the process: how do you create a ‘look’, to make it your personal design

So, hopefully you’ll be enjoying – and pressing the Like button! – the below video and pictures, and I’ll be seeing you again next week!

Stamp: Everything has its beauty, but not everyone always sees that

My Thinking Proces While Decorating a Box (relaxing video)

Posted on by
Reply

This week I’m sharing my thinking process while decorating an altered box. Some things are planned, but not everything. Most things work out, but not everything – and how to fix those. All in all I was pretty contented with how this little treasure chest turned out, and my friend was thrilled to receive it 🙂

If you want to know how to mat such a box in the first place, then check out one of my previous blog posts – or simply scroll down and find that video at the end of this post.

With its 25 minutes this week’s video is a bit long, and I’m mostly rambling on about what the next decorative element might be and why, plus I’m including several tips along the way. So get into your Chill Out mode, get a great cup of coffee or tea and a little snack, sit back, and most of all: relax and let the tone of my voice wash over you. Who knows, if you watch this in bed you may even fall asleep before the end – in which case: Sweet Dreams! 🙂 💤

 

How to mat a box:

 

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

Combining Painting & Decoupaging

Posted on by
Reply

In previous blog posts I’ve shared several of my decoupaged projects in which I completely covered an object with napkins or rice paper. Think bonbon boxes, candles, porcelain ware and even shoes and a lampshade!

In today’s project I’d like to focus on a slightly different way of decoupaging, that is to say, not covering your obhect entirely but very intentionally only parts, covering the rest with paint. The trick here is to decoupage first, perhaps going against your instincts to paint the object first instead.

The reason is that decoupage papers (rice paper or the top layer of paper napkins) are so thin that any kind of paint color will shine through. The only color you can actually cover your object with before decoupaging, is white. All others will NOT work.

So, first carefully tear your selected pattern from the napkin or rice paper, decoupage it onto your object, then paint carefully in between the patches. I always cover my decoupage projects with either mod podge or some other kind of sealant after.

And there you go!

Hopefully you enjoyed this blog exclusive tip. Check out the pictures below for some examples.

By the way, I’m also including some free video tutorials at the end of this post in which I’m decoupaging two different objects, in case you’d like to watch the technique. Enjoy!

And here’s some decoupaging technique videos:

 

How to color glass with alcohol ink and wax paint

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s a quick little gift idea: buy a nice little colorless tealight glass, and color it with two or more colors of alcohol ink. Add some extra decorations with wax paint and an art stencil, and you’re ready to go.

I think this took me less than 1 hour to make, including drying time 🙂

 

 

BewarenBewaren

Decoupaged Wooden Pencil Box

Posted on by
Reply

This week a blog exclusive project, so no Youtube video 😉 .

I find that sometimes it’s quite refreshing to vary your techniques, it avoids a rut and it gives the opportunity to create something for someone who may be familiar with papercrafting but not decoupaging.

I had just such a case on my hands, so when I decided to gift a colleague a nice wooden pencil box for her coloring pencils and markers, I decoupaged it with napkins instead of decorating it with scrapbooking paper. She was completely taken by surprise for she had never even heard of this technique and wanted to know everything about it 🙂

The box itself was white, with a plain wooden lid that had The Pencil Box printed on top of it. I used an antique gold colored napkin for the lid without painting it white first, so the words on the lid would come through and remain visible. I decorated the top right corner with some flowers,…

 

… and the lower left corner with a fussy-cut napkin flower, to which I added several colors of glitter glue.

Napkin decoupaged all around, including the back of the box.

I embellished the front with a satin ribbon, through which I had put a crown brad first.

I left the insides of both the box and the lid plain.

And last but not least, I painted the bottom burgundy, but since that left the surface slightly sticky unexpectantly – as would decoupaging it with napkin – I matted it with a piece of design paper in coordinating colors instead.

In short a relatively quick-to-make gift idea, especially for paper crafting recipients who’ve seen it all – except not 🙂

 

 

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

Simple & Elegant: Enchanted Forest Desk Organizer

Posted on by
Reply

An altered object can be a great present for Christmas or someone’s birthday. It can be tempting to embellish your project with all kinds of decorations, like flowers, charms, trinkets and the like. However, keeping it simple and elegant is sometimes a more sophisticated choice. Let your beautiful papers speak for themselves, and use your creativity to choose the right combination of paper patterns & colors.

For instance, the gorgeous Enchanted Forest collection by Graphic 45 has such beautiful patterns, I thought it really wouldn’t do to cover them up by anything else 🙂 So I used them to decorate this cute little wooden desk organizer I found in one of our home decor shops. This one was a bit smaller than my previous one, and its black color was the perfect base for the Enchanted Forest collection (and almost any other Graphic 45 paper line for that matter).

Personally I’m very pleased with the result – in fact I think I’ll keep this one for myself after all! 🙂

 

Using the collection’s signature sheet to decorate the left & right side of the organizer:

 

Gift idea: Altered Tea Box

Posted on by
Reply

Tea boxes are the ideal gifts to give and they are very fun and easy to alter!

For instance, I bought this simple wooden tea box, painted it black inside and out, and decorated with Bo Bonny’s Asian-themed Serenity paper collection & ephemera.

I did that once before, using the same design papers – I guess there’s something about Asian-themed paper on a black background, even more so when it’s all about tea 🙂

 


My first altered tea box with this paper collection:

 

Coffee Tray Altered to Photo Tray

Posted on by
Reply

When I found a little gray-painted coffee tray in one of our local home decor stores, I decided it would be perfect for the Stationer’s Desk collection by Prima Marketing. With a lovely summer picture of my mom and dad during their Rome holiday, this collection combined just the right amounts of nostalgia and vintange romance.

Placed upright, any such tray can be turned into the perfect picture frame, adding unique shadow box qualities to what would normally be much more straight-forward and flat. It was great to be able to use up all of my larger flowers of the collection, and because of the many embellishments this project was also perfect for using up some of the scraps I had left over from the paper pad.

Another great advantage was that the tray’s gray color already coordinated perfectly with the papers, so I didn’t have to paint it myself.

All in all a very fun project to do if you’re looking forward to paper crafting but are not in the mood for creating a card or a mini album!

 


Antique Bazaar Altered Desk Organizer

Posted on by
2

I found a great wooden desk organizer in one of our home decor stores, and I bought it to alter it. It was already painted white so I chose Kaisercraft’s Antique Bazaar, a collection that would go well with the white wood of the organizer.

The rounded shape of the organizer’s compartments presented a special challenge, especially on the insides and with the split compartment on the left – for which I had to create a very specially shaped mat:

Materials used

So, here’s the results!

Don’t forget to check out the pictures below!