Create Yourself - Shadowbox

Hi Everyone,
 Today I bring you something little unique. A shadowbox using a sewing theme. I don't sew; I pretty much just know how to do basic stitch by hand. I have this friend who who costumes and quilts. She was destashing her supplies and gave some authentic vintage accoutrements like threads, zippers, thimbles, buttons, and sewing kits made by hand. I was inspired by all sewing goodies that so many ideas came flooding into my mind. Being that I love using inspirational quotes; I felt compelled to use a quote using a sewing theme. So this is what I came up with, hope you like it.

How it's made

I used an 8x8 wooden shadowbox, which I painted using cream chalk paint. The background is scrapbooking paper. I made the dressform from Polymer clay and wire. I first created the armature with the wire, then sculpted the dressform, then baked it in the oven. I made the dress using Shibori ribbon and lace. The quote is made from chipboard, which was glued to the lace. The words were painted with purple pearl acrylic paint. I glued various embellishments and charms; buttons, mini wooden clothes pin, metal scissors, vintage thimble and spools of thread, measuring tape, and fabric flowers. Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy making it.

Coins in a Bottle - Altered Bottle

Hi Everyone,

As you probably have seen on my blog, I like to alter wine bottles. I have altered yet another bottle. I was going for  a buried treasure look; but the treasure you find is pennies, ha ha. I know it would of been better to find rare coins and gold. If I can create faux rare coins and gold that is not bulky, I might try that next time. No matter what you find in the bottle, it was fun altering this bottle.

How it's Made

I started by washing out the bottle. You can wash it and let it dry overnight. If you are impatient, throw it in the oven and bake at 250 degrees for 10 minutes and dries is right up. Once it's done let the glass cool off completely because glass gets super hot.

I started the creative process by gluing a real zipper. I found that a typical crafting glue will not adhere fabric to the bottle right away. So I used masking tape to hold down the zipper. Once the zipper dried I took the masking tape off. You don't have to, but makes it less bulky. I then decoupaged with book pages. I like book pages because it's thicker than newspaper. I decoupage everything except the zipper's metal areas. I also decoupaged the inside of the zipper's opening. It helps if you used paper on the inside of the zipper because the pennies can adhere to the paper better. The fabric of the zipper will tend to give it an uneven surface, so keep adding layer of paper until you get an even surface. I then painted the surface with black paint. I painted the surface the first layer black, the book paper layer, because the top layer was decoupaged with copper color tissue grade paper and it a little transparent. The black also intensifies the copper tissue paper.  I painted the entire copper tissue paper with Guilder's Paste and Inka Gold Paste. The bottle stopper is wooden knob, which has been decoupage with the copper paper as well. I used a brass chain to embellish the neck.