THE ART ESCAPE
  • Home
  • About
  • Artwork
    • Book Page Art
    • Custom Portraits
  • Find Me
  • Order
  • Classes
Picture

Spooky Box

9/20/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
This whole project started with Halloween first of course, then I wanted to use up supplies I already had (also "of course). A library patron who I have mentioned here before donated these boxes for us to use and I thought this would be a great way to use them up! There are many ways to make this type of box! You can do whatever you’d like using so many different supplies and random pieces and parts you have at home. The below steps are how I made the box above but feel free to use it as a general example for your creative ideas. I really don't know if there's a "point" to this box... but... I don't care... it's pretty! So enjoy, and in the perfect amount of just 13 steps :) 
Supplies:
  • BOX
  • PAPER
  • BOOK PAPER
  • EMBELLISHMENTS
  • WITCH PRINT
  • PAINT
  • TISSUE PAPER
  • FABRIC
  • SCISSORS
  • HOT GLUE GUN
  • LIQUID GLUE & BRUSH
  • PAINT BRUSH
1. To start with, I found a cool old postcard online that of course had a Halloween theme! I printed it off and glued it onto the box with Mod Podge (Just use a thin layer of glue and secure corners).
2. Next, I crumbled up tissue paper, then unraveled it (carefully). Pull off medium size pieces to fit around the postcard and glue them down with the liquid glue (paint some glue on and lightly tap the tissue paper into the glue so that it holds the crinkle look).
Picture
Picture
3. Once you cover the entire green space around the postcard and sides of the lid, paint all of the tissue paper/previous green space with black paint. (I like to lightly overlap onto the postcard so that it looks more realistic/gets rid of any straight lines)
4. Next, I glued on pieces of torn cardboard and added marbles almost for a crystal ball effect! Add a good pile of hot glue to press each marble into. Then add rings of glue around the marble to make sure it is held in place. Be sure to paint the glue with the black paint too to cover it up!
Picture
5. I added pieces of scrap fabric to a couple of places (I used sparkly velvet!). And added some ribbon in a few places along the sides. 
Picture
Picture
6. I added a piece of jewelry here.  
Picture
7. Now for the bottom, I ripped up book pages and crumpled them up. Then I unraveled them so they would still have the crinkly look and glued them to the outside of the bottom half of the box, even the bottom. 
8. While the book pages are drying, paint the inside walls of the box black.
Picture
Picture
Picture
9. Go back to your book pages and “distress” them with paint by very very lightly brushing the corners and raised areas with paint. 
10. Glue down your interior paper on the bottom and add ribbon and other embellishments.  
Picture
Picture
11. Now for the lid! Paint the walls of the inside of the lid black and glue your other scrapbook paper down on the inside as well. I distressed it a little by adding a little paint! 
Picture
12. Add other embellishments to wherever you would like!  
13. Lastly, add your gold paint for the perfect finishing touch by again very very lightly brushing over raised areas! Finish up by adding whatever else you’d like!
Picture
0 Comments

Acorn Specimen Frame

8/26/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is a pretty quick fall craft to spruce up your shelf space for the autumn weather or maybe a gift idea! The one I originally saw on Pinterest was very cute with bright fall colors. There are so many options with this type of craft, it's almost overwhelming. I thought about going with a subtle brown, tan, and white color combination at first. I thought it would be very elegant for Thanksgiving but somehow I ended up switching to more of a Halloween based theme with a distressed frame and distressed pages. The possibilities are endless but I hope you find one that you love!
Supplies:
  • Frame without glass
  • Acorns (real or fake)
  • Embellishments 
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Elmer's Glue or Mod Podge
  • Glitter, optional
  • Paintbrushes
  • Cardboard or back of picture frame
  • Decorative paper for background
  • Paint
1. Gather up all of your supplies so that you have them near and dear to your project space.

2. If you're like me, I had a few frames to choose from and was very stressed with all the options! Finally, I decided on something medium-sized and relatively simple in structure. I forgot to take a picture ahead of time, but I "distressed" my frame a bit by very lightly adding black in light strokes to make it seem old/give it some more depth to the frame. 
Picture
​3. The original post I saw for this project involved using cute polka dot scrapbook paper as a background. I was going to do this as well, but saw I had some old book pages lying around and thought that would be a much cooler effect! If you're using a piece of scrapbook paper make sure you glue/tape it on carefully, making sure there are no air bubbles forming on your background! For me, I added torn strips of book pages by gluing each piece one by one to the background. Keep adding and adding until your background is full. 
Picture
4. While your background is setting/drying, this is a good time to decide what you're going to do with your acorns. I decided to paint mine a metallic gold. I used 3 "craft" acorns and 3 real acorns that I found in the woods just to try out the different types to see if there were any differences... there aren't (but if you use real ones make sure you "bake" them to get rid of all the little buggies in there!) You'll want to do a couple of coats. 
Picture
There are many ways to do this. You could leave the acorns in their natural state, paint them, decorate them, wrap them with thread/yarn/twine, oooo! 
5. Of course, I couldn't help myself... I had to add at least some glitter to this project! I chose half, and decorated 3 of the acorns with a gold glitter that went well with the gold paint. I did this by "painting" on Mod Podge and dipping it into the glitter jar. They were awfully hard to get back out of there but they looked real cute when they were done.
Picture
6. While my acorns were drying I also made the glued book pages look more distressed/eerie for a more Halloween look. I lightly brushed very little black and brown paint over the pages giving them that look which you can see in the following photo. 

7. Lay out your acorns and see how you like them before you glue them. I used hot glue. Make sure you put enough on there and hold the acorn while it sets. 
Picture
8. Lastly, I decided to add a little extra somethin' somethin' to the frame and hot glued a flower to the upper corner.

That's it, we're all done!
Picture
0 Comments

Wildflower Painting

7/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Who doesn't love wildflowers?! This is a fun, whimsical painting to do with friends during the spring or summer months, they'll love it! 
Supplies: 
  • Canvas/canvas board 
  • Easel if desired
  • Acrylic paints (yellow, gold, green, black, white, blue, brown, fuchsia.. all the colors, just get all the colors!)
  • Sponges
  • Q-tips
  • Water cup
  • Paper towels
  • Paint brushes of various shapes (at least one pointy and one tiny one!)
1. Using a sponge, dab yellow and gold onto the canvas forming a marbled background. If preferred, let some of the white show. Accentuate gold at the edges for an authentic look. 
Picture
3. Using a pointed brush, add grass stems randomly throughout the sponged background using various shades of green.
Picture
5. If desired, add tiny/light dabs of green into the white so that it looks more realistic as if some of the stems/grass were showing through.
Picture
7. Add some highlights to the blue by going over the petals and center lightly with white. 
Picture
9. Next, create a variety of white daisy shapes throughout the foreground. Remember not all daisies are made the same! This may take a couple of coats to get a solid white layer.
Picture
11. For the last set of wildflowers, create “Red Clover” with fuchsia. Dab the paint into a rounded cluster with Q-tips. This may take a second coat to make it a nice solid layer. 
Picture
13. Make the grass more realistic by using a pointy brush and sporadically adding “wisps” of grass over some of the flowers, seen below. 
Picture
2. Rinse out sponge or use a new one for the grass background. Use 3 colors for grass: black, green, lighter green. Start with black, dabbing at the bottom for the deepest, shadowy parts. For each color you add, very lightly dab at the top to “fade”. Add green above the black, blending into the black as well. And lastly add the lighter green, blending into the previous colors. 
Picture
4. Using a clean brush, paint a handful of “Queen Anne’s Lace” by dabbing white in elongated “UFO” shapes. Make sure to add a “bud butt” of green underneath some of them as if you were seeing the stem of the flower.
Picture
6. Next, create various shapes and sizes to represent blue “Flax” flowers with a lighter blue paint. Be sure to make them different from one another. Keep in mind, ones in the foreground will usually be larger than the background.
Picture
8. If desired, go back over the white with a little bit of blue with a skinny brush so that the white isn’t so stark. This also gives the flowers some more dimension. 
Picture
10. I don’t particularly like how I did my daisies so feel free to do them however you wish!I added an orange center, rounding the top to make some look more realistic. I lightly brushed brown throughout giving the petals and added a tiny dusting of black in some areas as well. Again, as with the “Queen Anne’s Lace” add a “bud butt” to some of the daisies as if you could see underneath it. 
Picture
12. Next, add a bit of black and white very lightly to the flower for some dimension. You could also use the green from the grass before, anything to give it a dark depth in between the fuchsia. Can be done with the Q-tip as well. 
Picture
14. After adding some more grass in, it’s time for the really messy part! 
  • If you don’t want bits of paint on you or possibly your clothes, you should probably avoid this step or work extremely slow and careful!​
Using white paint, mix in a few drops of water to make the paint more fluid. Dab your brush into this new mixture and hold it over the painting. LIGHTLY hit/flick the paintbrush with your opposite hand, moving throughout the painting until satisfied. All done!
Picture
0 Comments
    Picture

    Rebecca Myers 

    Hey there, I'm Becca, or Rebecca, but not Becky, never Becky, unless you're my family from down south! I'm a simply modern librarian by day and an artist by night. My pursuit is for a simple, happy, healthy, and more fulfilling life! I hope I inspire you to get crafty!

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018

    Categories

    All
    45
    Acorn
    Acrylic
    Adults
    Altered
    Altered Book
    Animal
    Anniversary
    Apple
    Art
    Artificial
    Autumn
    Bag
    Banner
    Beach
    Beads
    Bike
    Black
    Blackbird
    Blog
    Bohemian
    Book
    Book Pages
    Bow
    Box
    Butterflies
    Buttons
    Can
    Candle
    Cardboard
    Cards
    Cat
    Change
    Christmas
    Clipboard
    Clothespin
    Clover
    Coasters
    Coffee Can
    Cold
    Cookie Sheet
    Cork
    Corks
    Coronavirus
    Craft
    Crafts
    Creepy
    CriCut
    Crow
    Daisy
    Decal
    Decor
    Decorate
    Decoration
    Decorations
    Decoupage
    Dictionary
    Diy
    Dog
    Dream Catcher
    Dreams
    Embellishment
    Embellishments
    Etching Cream
    Fabric
    Fabric Paint
    Fairy
    Fake Flowers
    Fall
    Feather
    Floral
    Flower
    Flowers
    Fluff
    Frame
    Fringe
    Future
    Galaxy
    Game
    Garland
    Gift
    Glitter
    Glow
    Glue
    Gnome
    Gold
    Grass
    Grow
    Halloween
    Handmade
    Hanging
    Harry Potter
    Hat
    Hippie
    Holiday
    Hot Glue
    Iron
    Jar
    Jean
    Jeans
    Jewelry
    Jewels
    Journal
    Junk
    Keepsake
    Keys
    Kids
    Knob
    Lantern
    Librarian
    Life
    Lights
    Light Up
    Luminary
    Magnets
    Mason Jar
    Matt
    Memo
    Memories
    Mermaid
    Mini
    Mirror
    ModPodge
    Mod Podge
    Moon
    Moss
    Music
    Native American
    Netting
    Nightlight
    Notes
    Ollivander's
    Ornament
    Outdoor
    Paint
    Paper
    Party
    Peanut Butter
    Pet Portrait
    Photo
    Pieces
    Pine
    Pins
    Pointsettia
    Pom Pom
    Pop
    Portrait
    Postcard
    Post It
    Posts
    Pumpkin
    Quick
    Quote
    Raven
    Realistic
    Record
    Recycled
    Repurposed
    Reuse
    Reused
    Ribbon
    Rice
    Runner
    Scrap
    Scrapbook
    Scraps
    Seashells
    Seeds
    Seniors
    Sheet Music
    Sheets
    Shirt
    Sleep
    Slice
    Small
    Smash Book
    Snow
    Snowman
    Sock
    Soul
    Soup
    Space
    Sparkly
    Spell Book
    Spells
    Splatter
    Spooky
    Starfish
    Stars
    Stencil
    Sticker
    Stickers
    Stitch
    Strawberry
    Stuffing
    Summer
    Surprise
    Tea
    Tealight
    Template
    Thread
    Thrift Store
    Tin Can
    Toole
    Tophat
    Tote
    Towel
    Tree
    Trinket
    Tshirt
    Twine
    Upcycled
    Update
    Vase
    Velvet
    Vino
    Vintage
    Vinyl
    Wand
    Wedding
    Wildflowers
    Wine
    Winter
    Wood
    Wreath
    Yarn

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Artwork
    • Book Page Art
    • Custom Portraits
  • Find Me
  • Order
  • Classes