Trash to Treasure

The new challenge starts today at Stamps and Stencils.  Autumn is hosting this one and she is calling it Trash to Treasure.  She describes it this way:

"Don't we all love a good upcycled project? This month we'd love to see how you take something that you'd normally discard and give it new life in your art. Whether it's glamorized boxes, Styrofoam turned into a stamp, packaging that's been die cut, or another altered idea you have. Bring on your best mixed media repurposing! We can't wait to see what you come up! Don't forget to use stamps or stencils in your project."

I decided to make a wall hanging that could hang in someone's sewing room.  First I had my husband cut me a piece of masonite on his fancy laser cutting machine.  The next step was to add my recycled items - the squares.  OK, not square exactly but definitely recycled since computers these days will not take these old floppy disks.  My husband had piles of them and offered them to me.  I accepted them but at the time had no idea what I was going to do with them.

Once they were adhered to the masonite, I coated everything with Liquitex Gesso and then coated the floppies with Liquitex Super Heavy Gesso. As you can see the heavy Gesso didn't smooth everything out so I decided to add some texture paste.  I used Golden Crackle Paste on the floppies themselves and Golden Light Molding Paste with a TCW Mini Geometric Art Layers stencil and a TCW Tiny Circles stencil on the backing board.  To get the stenciling in between the floppies since they were already glued down, I enlisted the aid of my handy dandy husband who drew some tiny circles in a graphics program and then cut a very narrow strip stencil on the laser cutting machine.  Love that machine - him too!!!!!

Next I added all the little bits and pieces - Tiny wooden clothespins and metals from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, Lace from Fancy Gap, Wooden Text created by my husband and sewing supplies from my stash.  I have discovered that Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel makes a great adhesive for most of the items and Glossy Accents is perfect for the beads and other tiny things.  Once adhered I covered everything with another coat of Gesso to unify the colour.

Next I painted everything with a coat of DecoArt Buttermilk Acrylic Paint and then a watered down coat of DecoArt Melon Acrylic Paint.   Ink sprays came next - Lindy's Starburst in Wild Honeysuckle Coral and a touch of Saxifrage Olive Coral, which had more green in it than I wanted (Olive - dah) so I used a natural sea sponge and dabbed on some Bronze Metallic Acrylic Paint from Craftsmart and some Folk Art Champagne Metallic Acrylic Paint.

Finally I added the sentiment which was stamped from a TPC Studio set and some seed beads that I picked up in the discount section at Michaels.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge - Pastel Colors
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes - Altered Art, Mixed Media (no cards or ATCs)
Crafter's Cafe - Use Some Lace
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Altered Art, Mixed Media (no cards or ATCs)
Take a Word  - Sewing
We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative Mixed Media Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Pastels