Finnabair: The Flaming Book Box

Hello Dear Ones!
For all those of you who like to create things that are both beautiful and useful, Bipasha has the most amazing project idea today!
Her latest mixed media is an absolute treasure and we hope you'll feel inspired to follow Bipasha's inspiration & tutorial. Let's make some great art today! :)

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Hello wonderful people,

Have you ever had an artistic moodboard in your mind for days, but somehow you just couldn't implement it in reality until one perfect day?

As it is said, the mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions! Yes, I have been through that annoying phase and then finally, I could just create it as envisioned (with some additions), on a lucky day!

So, I had this idea to infuse an air of mystery into a book box, altering it with a timeless shimmering hues and steampunk composition and transform it into a magical repository.

At the very outset, I create some textures using the Finnabair's Paper Paste and the 'Netting' stencil on my paper mache book box.

The reason I selected it as my base coat was its opaqueness with a matte finish, imitating the texture of a hand-crafted paper; and it just worked perfect for creating natural looking texture and adding dimension on my altered paper mache project.

I wanted to create a rustic look with black and white combination.

I used "wet acrylic" and "dry brushing " techniques to create the interesting rustic effect with alternate application of Heavy White and Black Gesso, drying each layer with a heat tool.

The "wet acrylic" technique is so very rewarding and great for those of you who love "watercolour" effect on your projects - just add a touch of black gesso with a brush on the white gessoed layer and water it down with a mister! Wipe any excess water with a paper towel.

For the "dry brushing" technique, I used a relatively dry paint brush with some White Gesso on it and applied it on my black gessoed area. The resulting brush strokes gave a characteristic scratchy look that I was aiming for. Thanks to the fact that the heavy gesso has a dimension which adds more texture to the layers.

Once I was happy with the outcome, I stamped some scripts on a masking tape and adhered it as my base layer along with some faux stitches, followed by layered a selected number of final Mechanicals metal embellishments in gun metal colour, lace trims and some assorted mdf chipboard gears.

I added an ephemera from the 'Melange' pack on the inner flap of the box with a rusted gear.

Finally, I added the Metallique paints and Sparks to add some beautiful shimmer on my embellishment and added some gorgeous highlights with Old Silver Art Alchemy Wax to create some lighting contours on the composition.

I feel that each of these layers created with these versatile products adds interests and details to get that perfection in the composition.