Sugar & Spice

Hello lovely Readers!
Today we meet with Marta who created the most adorable mixed media frame, but watch out - it's not as cute & sweet as it might look at first glance! ;)
You'll learn why reading Marta's post and watching a tutorial video she made just for us. Enjoy and happy creating, folks! :)

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Hello friends!

It's Marta Turska - Grochocka here today. I would like to show you my aged altered frame.

I've composed it a bit as a shadow box, but basically if you would like to make something similar, you can fill in your frame anyway you wish. You can focus on the picture or on building up the layers and the composition in the background.

I've mixed it all - I created textures and added elements around the picture of two happy girls.

I've used some metal Mechanicals embellishments, Melange Art Pebbles and Mini Art Stones to build a nice and rich composition with a bit of texture.

It was created before using a layer of White Gesso; and just to make sure it would dry properly I left it to dry overnight. A heating gun is a good way to dry my projects really fast, but when I want to make sure all the elements are permanently adhered - I prefer to leave it to dry overnight.

The second step was covering my project with Gesso and adding Azure Impasto paint applied with a brush and quite a lot of water (spraying the paint works magic too!).

All this because I LOVE watercolor effects and Impasto paints are just perfect to achieve delicate ombre effects.

I wanted to leave some elements uncovered with Gesso, that's why I've used paper letters and plain metal elements on the top and I covered them with Patina Pastes - Blue and Green.

I used them here and there just to add a subtle accent of color.

In the end, I used Brass paint which is also a part of Patina Paste set - I applied it with a sponge to get a very delicate result. 

I also took a bit of beautiful Red Amber Art Alchemy Wax to accent the edges and textures and Pollen Micro Beads to add some touches of interesting color.

Here's my short video in which you will see how easy (and how much fun!) it was to alter this little frame of mine. I hope you enjoy!

Why Sugar & Spice, you might ask? :)
Well, you see I felt these two adorable girlies needed a little bit of an edge! ;)

If you want your project to go beyond the obvious, mixed media is the perfect world to experiment with different styles, elements and supplies.

Here it's the metal embellishments and rough textures of Patina Pastes that I think added loads of character to those cute little creatures.

Such an altered frame could make a really cool and personalized gift for a friend or family member, don't you think? Just add your own photos and personality and keep experimenting!

xx
Marta

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