- Dec 13, 2018

Altered Pictureframes

Hi everyone, today I’m on the Colourstock Blog with an altered pair of picture-frames. This particular set was created as a, what we Dutch call, “Sinterklaas-surprise“, comparable to a Christmas present if you like.

I started with a pair of picture-frames from the dollarstore / Action (for everyone living in Europe) and they looked like this:

Step 1:

To prepare the surface of the frames for my later work I added two coats of The Crafter’s Workshop “White Gesso“ using a brush. When dry I added several layers of crinkled and torn up pieces of white tissue paper (but you can also use the paper that comes in shoe boxes), messily adhered to the frame using gel medium and a brush (wash your brush afterwards). It’s slow work to adhere each little piece separately but it will be worthwhile in the end!

This tissue paper will mask some of the harsh edges between the pieces the frame is made of and it will also create texture for my later layers to build upon.

Step 2:

On a separate piece of tissue paper I’m now going to create some green leafy designs to adhere to the frame in my next layer. I created mono-prints on tissue paper using my GelliArts “GelliPlate“ and GelliArts Paints in the colours “Kiwi“ and “Deep Jungle“ and I’m also using a set of Art Foamies called “Leaf Geo“ for this particular design. The tissue paper that you see in the picture actually is the paper that I used to clean my gelli plate with and then I worked on it a little bit more. This is usually how it works for me: the first prints never really appeal to me because they are too neat and too controlled. Usually I work on making prints for a half hour to an hour or so and then I choose the ones that I like best and use those on my projects. For the others I think out some other projects!

Never stop after your first prints!

When the paint on the tissue paper is dry I’m also crinkling up this paper and tearing it to smaller pieces that I also adhere to my frames using gel medium. Then I let them dry completely!

Step 3:

As pretty as the frames look now I found them to be a little to strong in colour and I also wanted to ad in some gold colour. So, I dry brushed on some ARA “Dark Gold“ Acrylic Paint, using, as you can imagine, a dry brush and very little paint: I wanted to highlight the texture on the frame.

Next I dry brushed some white gesso over the frame and splattered with the same watered down gold acrylic paint.

When dry my frames are now ready to be varnished. This will take some time to dry!

Step 4:

Now I’m going to work on some of my embellishments: for this I choose a Simon Says Stamp stamp set called “Even More Spring Flowers“. I stamped several flowers and branches on thicker Copic friendly paper (like “Perfect Coloring Paper“) using Memento “Tuxedo Black“ ink. The colouring of all these flowers was a lot of fun to do, I just did a couple each day when I had time.

When the colouring was done I added back in some highlights using a white Gelly Roll Pen and then I fussy cut all the flowers and branches leaving a small white border.

I used the following Copic marker colours:

- Reds: R0000, R20, R43, R29 and R39.

- Pinks: V000, RV52, RV02, RV06, RV55 and RV17.

- Greens: G40, YG03, YG17 and G16.

- Other colours: YR30, E17 and YR23.

Step 5:

To create some other fun elements for my project I also cut several straws (from a food supply store) in different lengths and then I first painted them with white gesso and then added several layers of the gold acrylic paint that I used before.

I also used a Scrapiniec chipboard (3773 “Background Mesh“), that I tore in a shape that I liked and also painted white with gesso and then I added GelliArts Paint in the colour “Mixed Berries“ on top and let that dry. This gorgeous pink paint colour matches the colour of the pink flowers very well!

Then I adhered the chipboards and the straws to the frames using gel medium (wash your brush afterwards) and let the frames dry overnight.

Step 6:

To finish my fun project I now can adhere all the flowers and branches to the project using one millimetre thick foam tape and Glossy Accents (but you can also use gel medium for this).

I totally love how this project turned out!

Some detail pictures: