QKD Royal Wednesday Hop!!! Alter Me Please!!!

Welcome to this week's Royal Wednesday!!! If you're hopping you should have arrived here from Alex!! This week we were issued an alterable challenge. Instructions were...alter a frame.

I've had this frame in my possession since...Mayish...

Let's just say that it's *kind of* a regift...in BAD need of repair!!! I could have just tossed away...not wanting to put the work and effort into it but...it needed and deserved to be made beautiful again.

So I set it aside for when I felt I had the time. Well, then the September Challenges were issued and the last week of the month was an ALTERED FRAME.

BINGO....
So...now I had a reason to set to it and make the time. It became, in my opinion, a eclectic and GORGEOUS jewelry holder for my everyday jewelry. My bracelet, couple pair of earrings, my wedding rings and ring that I wear on my right hand. And the ladybug or spider silver (depends on the day) stud that goes in the top of my left ear now all have a happy and fun place to reside when not in use.
The frame was an ornate, faux gold leaf, intricately carved, something reminiscent of the Renaissance Period. I wanted to destroy it completely and bring it back to life totally new!

I found my new Imaginescene paper which has been calling to me for some time now. I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. I started sanding and sanding and sanding the gold off and found a white resin below...not wood. The "faux patina" totally drew me in!! I sanded it down quite a bit and went to the paper and pulled the blue out of it and tried to match it as best as I could with my handy acrylic paints that I have. I used my large acrylic block as a palette and set to work just haphazardly mixing these colors. I eventually figured it out and just really slathered on the paint...knowing that once it dried I was going to sand it again. The paper that I used as my muse is Imaginisce's paper Twitterpad in Hey Foxy. (I used a few patterns from that line) I measured twice and cut once and used a paper weaving technique to come up with the "patchwork" inside design under the glass. I have this FANTASTIC magnetic matte that can hold even the heaviest of cardstock so that you can play and move things around and not have to play Twister with your fingers to hold it all together to see what it looks like!!

I tore off anything from that back that I could - the stand...the hardware...everything to make it as flat as possible. The pink faux fur is cut from a vest of my daughter's that she wore everywhere from year one to year 2 1/2. She adored it and I adored it when she was in it. It was a staple in her wardrobe. So even though it was supposed to be one of those things that you don't typically let a child wear every day...I did.

I didn't care to save it for "special occasions" because you know what? We don't have that many!!! A few family gatherings, a few bday parties but then the vest wouldn't have gotten it's necessary attention!! So she wore it daily. It was tattered, sticker covered....which left horrible grey fur in it's place from the left over sticky after washing. Anyway...I wanted to keep it...but what was I going to do with it? Just sit and look at it? So I grabbed it out of it's folded spot in my studio closet and set to it with my scissors. I made the bottom of the jewelry tray covered in this divine pink fur that now I get to look at multiple times a day and think about my baby...and functionally it really helps so that my dresser does not get scratched!!

I love how it came out!!
The one thing that did go wrong...and yes...you live and you learn.

I used the flower, crown and heart trio from QKD's awesome set Happy Skullz Stamp set. I initially stamped them in black Staz-on. I think my pad must be dry or defective as it's not that old and the initial stamping came out very faint and a terrible mess. It looked AWFUL!! Don't you hate when you get ONE SHOT at the stamping and it doesn't work? The glass on this frame was already sealed shut so there was no way of taking it out and putting another one in. So I grabbed my Brilliance graphic black pigment ink, which has never failed me and set to trying to match the images EXACTLY. I missed by a hair. But...I didn't have much time so I put embossing powder on it and heat it up.

When the embossing had finished I tipped the frame over to tap the excess embossing powder that had fallen into the corners out and into the trash can. After the first tap I hear "crackkkkk". I turned it over and the entire frame had shattered. (note to self: next time...wait till glass is cool! grrrrrrrrrrrr...it looked WAY cool before it was cracked)

So...now I sat and looked at it for a long time. My husband looked over my shoulder and said "can't you seam it with hot glue?". I said no that hot glue doesn't dry invisible. It's pretty goopy. BUT (and I credit him f0r I would never have come up with this on my own) I can use my clear stickles to make it look PURPOSEFUL!!!!! So that's what I did. I covered the initial breaks with Stickles and then set to adding a few "cracks" to make it look even but not so even.

So that's what I have for you today!! I hope you like reading about this as I had fun making it!!

Now...onto Linda!

QKD: http://qkd.blogspot.com/
Shannon: http://shannonssentiments.blogspot.com/
Jules: http://julietds.blogspot.com/
Penny: http://penny-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
Tina: http://woodedviews.blogspot.com/
Vicki: http://qksc.blogspot.com/
Maria: http://www.riacreations.blogspot.com/
Kelly: http://www.kellystamps.blogspot.com/
KellyJean: http://dancingwithstamps.blogspot.com/
WIS: http://whimsicalinksorority.blogspot.com/
Bev (SG) http://getcreativesg.blogspot.com/
Victoria: http://eatstampsleeprepeat.blogspot.com/
Lara: http://www.youwantthecookie.blogspot.com/
Anessa: http://alienanessa.wordpress.com/
Helene: http://2amscrapper.blogspot.com/
Nina: http://creatinginsolitude.blogspot.com/
Alex: http://www.paperandstring.blogspot.com/
Meredith: http://www.papercanteen.com/
Linda: http://linda-scrap-atc.blogspot.com/
Nancy: http://craftynancy.blogspot.com/
Anita: http://happypapercrafthappenings.blogspot.com/
QKD: http://www.katstamps.com/store---------

XOXO-