The Mirror Revamped

Hi everyone & Happy New Year! Hope you all had a good festive season & that one of the many lurgies going around didn't get you. Thought it time to get a blog post out there & I've been having fun with a bit of upcycling, ideas for which I've had buzzing around my mind for a while now. The original project was a Woodware blog theme in 2012 (can't believe that!) & was a post when the Frantage range from Stampendous was first becoming popular in this country. I remember I was very proud to be asked to take the mirror to the forth coming "Stitches" trade show at the NEC Birmingham in February to go on display on the Woodware stand  where Fran Seiford herself would be demoing & holding Make & Takes. Happy days! The one which has been recycled after spending many a year on my lounge wall was in fact mark 2 as I had to make another to go on display in Japonica as the original never did return to me which was fine! 

I decided that it was beginning to look it's age & a bit tired so I ruthlessly stripped all the original features from it & gave it a coat of white gesso.

Now sorry about the weird camera angle but it's very difficult to photo a mirror with out getting all kinds of things which you don't want into shot i.e me!! 
So, after the gesso was dry, (by the way I had to do 2 coats & I kept the original "Frantage" to give some texture) I gave the whole thing a coat of Creative Expressions Metallic Gilding polish in Powder Blue. I wasn't too fussy how i applied it as i was going for the "shabby chic" look for this. Next I added the strip of hessian ribbon with lace on the top & then some burlap flowers. The bling you see in the  right had corners are from Frantage  "Champagne" crushed glass glitter. The other bits are from a Tim Holtz mixed media die (the honeycomb), some tiny shells bought for a workshop on my hols to Mallorca last year, the starfish is from an old necklace teamed with some skeleton leaves & the bees & ants come from a Leonie Em punch from Woodware. To finish off I just added some silver gilding wax in places with my finger to give it a bit more of a grungy aged look. 

With the closure of Woodware & having been a DT member right from the get go I hope to carry on giving you my weekly offerings however random they may be so I hope that you will still visit my blog & a comment or two would be great then I 'll know i'm not talking to myself! It happens quite a lot these days! 

I'll be back at my regular Thursday morning demo slot at Liberty Craft Exmouth  from this week (5th) & there will be news of our first workshop day on Saturday  21st January  available soon. The theme for this month will be "Stencilling for Everyone" so watch this space!

Here's how the mirror looked originally & my post which went with it. Bye for now! 

Shabby White embossing powder

FRG10C Shaved Ice

FRM05 Bronzed Mica flakes

FRM04 Tea Stained Mica flakes

FRG01C Silver Glass glitter

FRG02C Champagne Glass glitter

Artquest Mica colour palettes Stargazer & Interference

Stampendous clear stamps SSC196 Silhouette Songbirds

2" Woodware Maple punch

1" Woodware Oak Leaf punch

Versafine Onyx Black

Metal Quilting sheet in gold & copper

Craft wire

Craft glue

I've had such a good time creating my project this week & using some of the great products from the Stampendous "Frantage" range. This includes gorgeous embossing powders, Mica flakes & chunky glitters & as you can see I've really gone to town with them. I wanted to do something different this week so I've chosen to use a MDF mirror to decorate. I started by removing the mirror itself & giving the frame a thin coating of gold & bronze from the Artquest palettes. I then took some pieces of rust & brown card & randomly sploged them (that's a technical term!!) with golds, bronze & black also from the palettes. When the frame was thoroughly dry (I left it over night) I randomly stamped the songbirds & florishes using the Stampendous set. Next I punched some maple leaves from the brown & rust pieces & scored veins in them using a DEET (double ended etching tool). Then came the fun part! I applied craft glue to various parts of each leaf & added Mica flakes & glitter. I then created the swathe of texture, glitter & mica flakes in the bottom right hand corner of the mirror by simply applying a layer of Shabby White embossing powder & adding all the other textures randomly to it. I then heated the whole area from underneath until the embossing powder melted to hold the other elements in place. Finally the leaves were arranged down the left hand side of the mirror & you will notice that I have added some coiled craft wire which I have dipped in craft glue & frosted with glitter. The only thing left to do then was to re-asemble the mirror & I'm pretty pleased with the effect!!