Sunday, January 31, 2016

A Craft Foam Tiled Box Tutorial

Hey everyone! I've got a super fun project for you today. It's a craft foam tiled box... and you use puffy paint to grout it!!


I have a whole drawer full of that craft foam you can buy at the dollar store. I bought it years ago when I was just starting to really get into mixed media but never really used it....till now. 

I thought if cut up, the foam would make a good tile. And as for the puffy paint, I was surfing the web and saw that someone had said that puffy paint makes for a good texture paste. That's when the idea hit to use it as my grout for this project.

I also have decided to use it for a couple of challenge sites:

Gather your supplies:
🔹a box to alter
🔹gesso
🔹craft foam
🔹alcohol inks and blending solution
🔹puffy paint
🔹3D lacquer or squeezable resin
🔹glaze medium

I'm always looking out for things to alter these days and so I got my box to alter at the dollar store also. 

Here are the steps (I'll post the picture first):


Step 1: Cover your box with a layer of gesso.
(Since mine had a design, I especially needed to, but it's usually always a good idea to start a project with gesso)


Step 2: Add alcohol ink to your craft foam.
(Using a piece of felt, I added alcohol ink by "pouncing" it on)


Step 3: Add more than one color of ink.
(Since I was making mine blue, I used both blue shades of alcohol ink I had.)


Step 4: Use a blending solution as your last step to inking to blend the colors together.
(It didn't really look cool till I blended the colors.)


Step 5: Draw a line where the lid of your box comes to on the bottom portion of the box.
(I'm really glad I remembered this step, otherwise the lid wouldn't have fit.)


Step 6: Cut out the tiles from the inked craft foam.
( I made mine kind of jagged, but you can make them any shape.)

















Step 7: Paint the areas that you're not going to tile.
(I painted mine the same color as my grout.)


Step 8: Glue your tiles where you want them placed.
(I actually cut some to fit.)


Step 9: Fill in the spaces with puffy paint.
(This parts fun.)



Step 10: Add the 3D lacquer or squeezable resin.
(I ended up adding it over the whole thing, but if you're careful you could also just add it to the foam tiles.)


Step 11: Add a glazing medium to the non tiled areas.
(I did this so the non tiled areas would shine like the rest of the box.)


Step 12: Add any final touches and/or embellishments.
(I covered up more of the original design as well as add some pearls along the rim of the lid.)

And we're all done!!

I'd love it if you left a comment telling me what you think of the project. Let me know if any of you decide to do it too.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Art Journal Challenge 2016 - Week 4

Thanks so much for taking a look at my week 5 art journal challenge entries. I had a lot of fun making them.

The first one I'll share is for Colour Me Positive. The challenge was to use a self image or make a self portrait. Here's what I did:


I have to tell you, it was super fun sticking my face in the page. I used a photo of me that I doctored up a bit of course. The techniques were pretty simple. I just used some watered down acrylics over a collages background.



Next, I'll share my page for Embrace Your Art. The prompt was "what's your favorite color?" and the challenge was to use Saran  wrap:



I'm sure it might be difficult to see how or where I used the Saran Wrap so I'll tell you; I made a background using the Saran Wrap method (I'm someday going to make a pic by pic tutorial of that one for you) and I cut it up to make the tiles. I did use some other backgrounds for the tiles too. I wasn't sure if it screamed "RED" enough so that's when I decided to just state it.

On to the next....

Here we have my entry for Journal52. They had a couple different prompts about the moon. One was about a full moon, and the other was about "moon madness." I tried to incorporate them both a little:

🔹For the background I used both alcohol inks and pigment inks. 
🔹And the stars in the background are embossed with silver embossing powder.


And finally we have my items for The Documented Life Project. The items are:
🔹My weekly spread
🔹Last weeks PAC card
🔹This weeks PAC card

Here's the spread:

I used paint and a stencil for the middle and washi tape around the outside.


Last weeks PAC card:

The challenge was to use a flyer. The town my family and I live in is called Paradise and I used our local coupon flyer we get in the mailbox.


This weeks PAC card:

The challenge was to use a receipt. I used a Walgreens receipt and therefore made my card a bit pharmaceutical.



Thanks again for letting me share those with you!

On Sunday I plan on posting a tutorial for a cool box I made using craft foam tiles and puffy paint grout. It's super fun so check back then and I'll show you how to make it.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Color Me Positive Catch Up

I found another 2016 weekly art journal challenge online last week, Colour Me Positive by Lulu Art. It looked like a good and fun one so I joined. I've been working all week to catch up and now I'm posting my entries for the first three weeks.

The prompt for week one was to use an image or words for something you were grateful for in 2015. 

My family and I went through some rough times in 2015 but in the end, we're still all together. So "being with my family" is what I'm most grateful for:

I decided to do a grid with some elements. Before I added the words, I laid a stencil across the whole page and sprayed some glimmer mist. I think that brought it all together.


The next prompt was to use a silhouette. I decided to do an idea I've been wanting to for awhile:

I saw the idea of making a button tree on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for this challenge. I had my cricut cut out the tree silhouette out of a cereal box. (Since I can't seem to get my cricut to cut chipboard all the way, I thought this was a good alternative.) 

I added the buttons and the quote and viola!

As you can see, I've decided to put my entries in a kraft binder. I also made little tabs to go in between each page. I made them on my iPad and then laminated them.

The third weeks prompt was to use lyrics from a song. My favorite music artists since I was a teenager have always been Simon and Garfunkel which is a little odd since I'm only 36. (I think I missed my era.) Anyway,one of my favorite songs is "Flowers Never Bend With The Rain" and I wanted to use lyrics from it:

I used texture paste in the back and book pages for grass (or whatever it is.) I sprayed with ink sprays and then added blue paint where the grass things weren't.

I had fun with these prompts and look forward to more. I should have week 4 posted with the other three (the DLPembrace your art, and journal52) up by the end of the week.

Btw, is anyone reading this doing any of these art journal challenges also?