altered calendar....

feeling deep withdrawal for paint on my fingers and my pencils carving into my wet paint after the long weekend of stripping wallpaper and no studio time.

.....finally made it to the studio last night. 

i had purchased a calendar at Target this last week (for a dollar!! in the first section of stuff they always have by the front entrance) and was hoping to be able to alter it.....

and i am happy to say- it is working like a charm.

a little gesso, some paint, an art sticker tape, and stamping.....

i am working on editing a video to show you how i am altering the calendar..... coming soon.

xo. kristin

altered altoid tin {spooky}

participated in an altered altoid tin swap and had so much fun creating this....

here are a few still shots for details....

monday #rolodexart #altered

power went out during the night last night. woke us up because our smoke detectors are hard wired into the house, so when we lost power, the smoke detector sounded...

thought i would be smart and set my phone alarm so we could still get up on time. tried to use my snooze on my phone....and apparently i don't know how that works, or was too sleepy when the alarm went off because i did not set the snooze and we got up late anyway.......

really?!.....monday.

vintage sewing pattern paper background. skirt is from a 1950's sears catalog. disgusted girl from spring fashion magazine. crown is a stamp.

she will go into the roll.

altered matchbox

i was hoping to find the small matchboxes, but, in my small town....none were to be found; so i settled for a large matchbox. i of course checked out pinterest (the link will show you a few of my favorite matchboxes) for inspiration, before settling down and getting to work on my own box.

i started by covering my outside box with vintage book paper. i also covered the inside of my inner box as well because i knew that my idea would show the inner box and i wanted it to all work together.

i did use Dina Wakley's gel medium to glue all my paper onto each box; but, any glue would would work. (although, i have found that Dina's is my favorite for mixed media work.) the darker edge seen above dried just fine and is not discolored on my final version.

i pulled the inside and outside box together with that polka dot paper seen on the far left above. i cut "edges" to add to the inside box and a strip to add to the outside box.

i am making this for a swap, and part of our instructions was to also have words of wisdom into the inside box. i was not totally sure what words i was going to use, but, when searching my vintage book stash, i found the perfect quote....

this is an early on shot of my girl. i love pink hair (i mean- who doesn't?! right....) and i found the perfect girl in a vintage sears catalog; now the dress....i had to work for that a bit. i actually used several "dresses" from a children's book- 2 for the sleeves that were small and one for her main dress. she also had to have some fabulous strappy shoes! hello?....any girl with "victorious mischief" will have tall strappy shoes on.....

i added some hair details with a wash-n-sketch pencil and painted her dress to pull that all together putting white details on the top. and i love her light pink hair ribbon i stitched on.

here is a pic of my final matchbox that i mailed out. i added some extra little details to pull everything together.

happy monday!

potential possibilities

i am so excited that my blank paint brush showed up!! i don't know if you know, but, over at Donna Downey, she is hosting an "altered paint brush" for her new studio/ gallery space (which is so cool!!). i love donna's work....she has collage mondays and inspiration wednesdays. check out her blog!