Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog: Home for the Holidays

Hello, Friends!  It’s time for another fabulous challenge over on the Frilly and Funkie Blog.  I’m the hostess for the FINAL challenge of 2016, and the theme is Home for the Holidays.

Let’s get ready to Deck the Halls by creating some home decor for the holiday season.  You can make centerpieces, wreaths, banners, ornaments, wall hangings, or little vignettes  …basically anything BUT a card for this challenge. If you don’t celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, then just make some home decor with a wintry theme.

Home for the Holidays Altered Woodland Frame

This may be my favorite Christmas project of the season.  I am kicking myself because I forgot to take a “before” picture of this ugly, ugly, cheap plastic frame.  You all know how much I love to go “junkin” at our local thrift shops.  Well, I found this white plastic frame in the clearance bin for under a dollar.  Now, honey, you know when an item ends up in the clearance bin at the Thrift Shop….well, it’s ugly, ugly, ugly!

However, I liked the fact that it had two openings.  And I liked that the opening on the right had a little bucket attached to it (complete with tacky plastic purple pansy ).  The right hand side had a sort of interesting (in an ugly way) ribbed panel that said plastic bucket was attached to.  Yes, it was not pretty…but it had……possibility.  So it went into my basket.  I will tell you that Dale, who no longer bats an eye at any of my crazy schemes, saw the frame in my basket he gave me “that” look and said, “Really?”  My reply?  “I feel sorry for it.”

Thus the journey began.

The Perils of Working with Plastic

Part of the fun of creating altered art is learning how to work with new surfaces and mediums.  I will be completely honest with you here: if I ever find another ugly plastic frame in the clearance bin at the thrift shop, I will walk right past it.  Plastic is very resistant to transformation.  It took a little light sanding followed by two coats of heavy white gesso, then two more coats of heavy black gesso to prep the surface of this frame.  And you have to let each layer dry on its own, because this is plastic, people.  You cannot use a heat gun on plastic!

From Trash to Treasure

I love the way this frame turned out.  It’s all country chic and has a great woodland feel.  Sadly, there are no step out photos as I got completely lost in the process of working with this tricky surface.  But I can tell you that I sprayed the gessoed frame with Brushed Pewter Mica Spray and it created this very cool “frosty” finish. I know it is hard to see in the photo, but take my word for it; the frame looks like Jack Frost skipped across its surface.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Altering this Tim Holtz Trophy Antlers Idea-Ology piece was another learning curve.  It is also plastic, which means it is slick.  Which means it doesn’t take paint all that well.  So I ended up painting it with some white chalk paint designed for glass surfaces.  While it was wet, I sprinkled it liberally with Frayed Burlap Distress Embossing Powder and carefully heat set it.  Voila!  Fur on my woodland lovely!  Then I added droplets of Ginger Alcohol Ink over that.  This process taught me that I have more patience than I thought!

The “birch trees” background was also plastic.  So I painted it with more of the chalk paint.  Then I dry brushed it with Pumice Stone  and Hickory Smoke Distress Paints.  Finally, I stamped it with the Birch background stamp from Tim’s  Birch and Pine set.  Even my husband said…”hey…cool birch trees.”  Yaaaas!  Victory is mine!

The oak barrel planter was part of the original frame, so it was also plastic.  I gessoed it, then brushed it with Platinum texture paste. While the paint was wet, I added Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder, held my breath and very, very carefully heat set the powder.  Spanish moss, red berries, icy branches and Tim’s Woodland trees make a mighty cute forest if I do say so myself.

Adding the Sentiment

Since I was having so much fun experimenting with new techniques, I decided to stamp the sentiment on Kraft Glassine paper.  I used Jet Black Archival Ink and then heat set with clear embossing powder.  It looks so homespun and welcoming.  This is a technique I will be trying again soon!

For finishing touches, I created snowy window panes with Grit Paste then sprinkled with ultra fine glitter.  I spattered the entire frame with Dylusions White Linen spray, then added flowers and a bow.

Phew.  That was easy. NOT.  But was it fun?  Oh, yes!  And I learned a lot in the process.  I still wish I had taken a before photo, though.

Now It’s Your Turn

Be sure to pop over to the Frilly and Funkie Blog where you’ll find more inspiration from the Frilly side of the team.  (The Funkie Side will share their Home for the Holidays creations with us next Wednesday.)  You’ll find all the challenge details and guidelines there, too.

The team will be popping by to take a peek at your lovely creations and one of you will be chosen to serve as a Guest Designer in an upcoming challenge.  Three more will be chosen to receive favorite badges to display proudly on their blogs.  And everyone who follows the challenge guidelines will be entered into a drawing for a $25 shopping spree at the Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I know it is a very busy time of year, but I hope you will all find time to play along and help us finish this year’s challenges with a bang.  I cannot wait to see what you make!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

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