how to age a wooden box

Sweet friends,
I got a wooden box from the flea market over the weekend. I altered it into a shabby white box and thought I'd share a tutorial of it today :). 

This is just another way of making a box looks old. I first glued brown tissue paper all over the box, and let it dried.

Tissue paper still wet with glue.

The original box.

After tissue paper has dried.

Then I dry-brushed some gesso all over the box, with a single objective to get imperfect brush strokes, LOL. Just go crazy, left a patch here and there :). I dried this first before moving on painting inside the box. [That way you won't leave finger prints on the wet gesso].

Painted the inside with leftover gesso.

I then, sanded off the surfaces and all the edges. 

In doing so, I partially torn off the tissue paper, do you see it?. Think I like that :).

Further distressed the box by inking all the edges with Timber Brown Stazon.

Then I stamped some butterfly & flower motives on multiple sides. You may add word strips, or decoupage or layers of collage with ribbons and fabrics for more colors and texture. 

The front.

The back.

I even stamped the inside edges.

And that's it. This is the new home of my winter ATCs!. Hope you'll give this a try. Hugs.

shabby winter ATCs

Hi there,
After a fun blog-walk through the snow with Dawn around her backyard, I can't help myself but to create something white & shabby. Oh, Dawn your home is so beautiful!. LOVE LOVE the snow. Since I crave a quick art fix tonight, ATCs would be the answer;

I used white gesso for texture and later finger-smudged with blue, coffee bean & taffy acrylic paint. When dried, I stamped, distressed, sprinkled some glitters and collaged to my heart's content. I love that they're quite chunky. 

This one is my favorite!. I filled tiny bottle with white sparkling 'snow' for fun :). 

And glass beads as icicles. 

I made 'tracks' and heart patterns with an artist knife while the gesso was still wet. Was trying to mimic all the fun tracks seen at Dawn's backyard :).

I loved snow-covered bulrush. [well, snow-covered everything]. Here, I used twines to achieve that organic look.

I used plenty of lace, fabric, pom poms, gauze and buttons to give that shabby look. I'm keeping the colors cool and earthy. And a dash of blue for the sky. 

There you have it, first ATCs of the year!. Hope you'll hop to Dawn's blog post to check out how I interpreted her beautiful surroundings!. Have a good weekend :). Hugs.

what I do besides 'art'ing

Hello friends,
Ever since I have my cats, I don't keep plants in my home anymore. And I made sure all fresh-cut flowers safe in jars on high places. I'm not a green thumb and sadly it seems, the plants would die if I ever touched them. I LOVE LOVE to do this more.  

I've been keeping little potted plants out on my tiny verandah, trying very hard not to touch them. [As you can see, they are still in their store-bought plastic pots!.]. Being too careful.

With lots of water, LOVE, talking and singing to the plants, they live!. I can't be happier, my experiment works :).

And the cactus are happy too, despite all the rain we have here almost every afternoon. 

I think now I could move on to grow flower plants and herbs. Should be fun!. Wish me luck. 

To end this post, I like to share a 'singing plant' video that I found a while ago. I'm happier now when I'm outdoors in nature, deeply knowing that I'm hearing their songs :). I am a believer. You can read more here as well. Till then, HUGS.

Another fun thing to do with old books

Sweet friends,

How was your week?. Mine is great so far, a friend from Singapore  visiting [Hugs to you, Yvonne :)] and we had a little city tour and an afternoon of mixed media play!. 

The week before was super mundane, super low with inspiration to create, LOL. The only thing I did was sketching in an old book I got from the flea market. You know, I LOVE this so much!. I've been altering old books forever, and doing this for a change is refreshing :). Come take a peek;

I don't read Shakespeare but it's a gorgeous little book. It was owned by a 15-year-old boy from 1954!. And best of all, the pages are still great to paint on with watercolor :).

I drew a few of Alice In Wonderland subjects;

And birdies;

I think it's great to turn them into collage and later frame them :). We'll just see what transpires from this. So, enjoy the rest the week & lots of HUGS.

Oh, and this is Arthur. My boy looks mean these days, LOL.

inspiration : shabby

Hello sweet friends!. 
How nice to see you all again :). I like to start the year's inspiration doo-dah with some color happiness, hope they'd bring some smiles today. Just a note about what I'm working on now, I've been indulging myself with drawings and my 'Life Art Journal' is now full of with sketches & colors. I'm ready to begin the second book!. Will share them next, I promise.

But for now, do enjoy a little inspiration shabbiness. And have a great week!. HUGS.

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Happy New Year!

Dear friends,

Happy 2013, from my cats and me! :). 
I like to share some happy pages from my 'Life Art Journal' today. We're starting 'Life Art Journal' classes this month @ Scrappingville. Sensational!. Check out here for exciting details and class schedule. If you're in town, come join us:). 

So, enjoy; [I must warn you, this post is photo-heavy :)]. 

I felt playful with this page. I made little windows, so we could all 'peek' at my passion, so to speak :). 

Here is the next page. 

I doodled the frames based on my favorite transparent stamps.

I used white gel pen to doodle doilies on kraft paper, then pasted on the pages like so. [The idea came when I was making snowflakes for Newtown school kids :)].

It's almost midnight now. Too late for coffee :). Thanks for staying with me till the last photo, phew. Till next week, LOVE &  HUGS.