Craft Hoarders Anonymous Monthly Blog Hop:
Hello, Friends!
What an exciting day here on the blog! Today is the launch of the very first Craft Hoarders Anonymous Monthly Blog Hop! Our fearless leader, Gloria Stengel, hatched this fine idea to help us all dig into our crafty stashes and create with items that have been lying around gathering dust. The hop will occur each month on the 5th and will begin at Gloria’s blog: Scraps of Life. You should be coming here from Teresa Horner’s amazing blog: Victorian Paper Queen. If so, you are right on track. If not, you can go back to Gloria’s blog so that you don’t miss a single stop along the way.
“G” is for Ginny Altered Paper Mache Letter
My BOLB (Best On Line Buddy) Ginny Nemchak is celebrating a birthday very soon and I thought it would be fun to make her a little something pretty for her studio. I dug around in the Closet of Shame and found a paper mache letter I had ordered for her quite some time ago, and I also found a goldie oldie paper pad: My Mind’s Eye Lost and Found. I dug out some Prima flowers, some watch faces I’d been hoarding, loads of beautiful Really Reasonable Ribbon and went to work. Here’s what I came up with:
This letter sits about 8″ tall and is about 5.5″ wide and 1.25″ thick with a kraft brown paper mache base. First, I traced around the letter onto my chosen paper. I cut out the letter, distressed the edges and inked them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Then I ran my Worn Lipstick Distress Paint around the outer edge for contrast.
Next, I painted the entire letter with a coat of DecoArt Innocence Chalky Finish Paint. When that dried, I inked all the edges of the letter with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and glued my paper to the surface using Art Institute Dries Clear Adhesive.
If you look at the inside edge, you can see that I also lined the inner and outer edges with a complementary strip of paper from the same collection. The paper was cut 3/4″ wide, inked and glued down. Now for the fun part! Embellishing!
I adhered a little vintage lace to the cap of the letter to go with the shabby chic vibe of Ginny’s studio. Next, a chipboard frame was inked up with Versamark and heat embossed with Stampendous Shabby Pink Embossing powder. The edges were lightly inked with Worn Lipstick Distress Paint. I have a weakness for Prima Shabby Chic resin embellies, and I chose the pretty white water fountain to mount on top of the chipboard frame. Before I secured it with foam tabs, I traced around the inner section and cut out a piece of the French Script paper to line the back. Then I inserted the faucet, using Glossy Accents to hold it in place. I used my finger to tap on some Worn Lipstick Distress paint and let it dry for a minute. Next, I stuffed the basin with Spanish moss and glued in some pale green sweetheart blossoms and set the fountain in place. I added a trio of little Prima butterflies, just for fun.
Next, I tackled the focal ornament. To start, a piece of Rust Silky Crush Ribbon was tied around the side of the letter. Then I tied a triple loop bow with my Zutter Bow-it-All Tool and glued it on top with the tails hanging off the side. Next, I took a large Prima fabric rose that has been languishing in the drawer of flowers and cut it in half, tucking one half above and one below the rust bow. Then I tied a quadruple loop bow with Pink Canvas Color Band Ribbon, folded it in half and glued it down to the left of the center of the rust bow. Another large Prima cloth flower was glued on top of this. Then a Prima rose was tapped with Worn Lipstick Paint, dipped in glitter and glued into the center of the cloth flower, which I also tapped with paint.
I had fun tucking in little tassels, burlap string loopy bows, clock faces, and all sorts of goodies that make me think of my BOLB and smile. The big lightbulb has been in my stash for ages. I backed it with French Script paper before gluing it on. It says, INSPIRE…because Ginny inspires me to be a better artist and to always do my best.
I feel blessed to be surrounded by the great group of paper artists in Craft Hoarders Anonymous, and I know you will want to catch all the blogs on this fun hop. The next stop in this hop is the always uplifting Jan Ennenga. For a full list of all the artists participating in the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Monthly Blog Hop, check out the list on Gloria’s BLOG.
I’m so glad you joined me for the inaugural Craft Hoarders Anonymous Monthly Blog Hop! I’m thankful to have you as companions on this journey. I’m headed off for a much needed vacation this week, so my posts will be few and far between. I hope to come back refueled, refreshed and ready to play with paper. While I’m gone, I hope you’ll dig deep into your personal hoard and have fun creating something beautiful!
Cheerio,
kathy
