Upcycled Love

Hi Everyone,

Hope the first month of the year is treating all of you with happiness and growth. I am having very hectic schedules with the marriage season blooming in both sides of my family (My Own family and My In Law side).

Two years back if you met me, I would never belong to the category of the 'upcycle' girl. If a bag tore or a zipper wore out, my first instinct would be to get rid of the bag and get a new one if needed! The same phenomenon applied to practically everything in my life (except human beings :P ...hahhaha)

But post my sabbatical from work and crafting full time I have recycled and upcycled many things. Thats also after my Decoupage skills were brushed by many mentors who are friends and my regular practice gave me confidence to play around and take risks that I would have never thought of few years back with respect to Crafting!!

Hence, today as part of my second inspiration for this month's challenge at TTC I decided to upcycle some love. Love of my husband and a dear friend I made last year through the CraftyFeast.

This month's challenge as you all must be now aware of is - Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed/Gifted and Something Blue.

I have upcycled my birthday gift from husband - a mobile cover (Something Old). I loved the original but the design was wearing off and I didn't want to throw away something my husband gave me so I thought what best but create new memories in addition to the old ones.

I first sanded off the entire base and then applied two coats of white gesso allowing it to dry for a good 3-4 hours between each layer.

Once completely dry, I stuck the fussy cut design of a sassy looking lady from the Bob N Betty Decopatch papers that was gifted by a dear friend Deepika Sharma (Something Gifted).

I have then taken my fvaourite Memory Box Stencil (Something Old) and my new Pebeo-Studio Acrylics (Something New) in the colours Blue (Something Blue), Green and Gold to create patterns around the lady. These new acrylics in my craft room have an in built shimmer and they look gorgeous in any project that they are added to!

Once dry, I have taken the sentiment 'Hey Smartypants' from my new stamp set (Something New) and stamped it with black Archival Ink. 

After allowing sometime for the ink to dry, I have generously applied two coats of varnish allowing 3-4 hours of drying time between the layers. 

Now I have a totally awesome upcycled mobile cover .....I enjoyed making this project ...and I hope you enjoyed reading about it and get inspired to try your hands with something similar!!! Also I hope I have inspired you enough to join us with this month's challenge at TTC.

Happy Crafting
Saumya

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed/Gifted and Something Blue at TTC Blog

Hello Everyone

A very happy New Year to all of you. May this new year bring a lot more joy than the last year and much more peace to you and your families than last year.

This year's first challenge is based on an old marriage tradition in the Christian community. This tradition was something I have personally loved and appreciated a lot and so using it in a Challenge was super exciting!!!

So the Challenge is to have ALL the above mentioned elements in your projects. 

Something Old- You can use an old crafting technique or an old product from your craft stash.

Something New- You can have a theme with New Beginnings (New Year/ New Home/ New Baby etc) or use a new crafting technique or a new product from your craft stash.

Something Borrowed/Gifted- You can use a craft product either gifted to you or some embellishments that you might have borrowed from a family or friend, or an idea or inspiration borrowed from someone. (Please do not copy the same design as it is, you can CASE the design in your own style and if that is done please give due credit to the artiste)

Something Blue-Your project needs to have blue in it in any form. Other colours are permitted too but blue is a must


Decoupage has become an integral part of me now and I love the art form beyond words, and so am here with a Decoupage project for the Challenge!

This book box was gift to me by a dear friend so I decided to use this as the base and to complete one element from the challenge (Something Borrowed/Gifted).

I have then taken a page from an old book  ( Something Old) and to further give it a vintage look painted it with coffee water. Once dry, I applied Mod Podge on the base and stuck it over it. 

I have then used my newest craft supply- cut outs from Graphic 45 pattern papers (Something New). I am using the brand Graphic 45 for the first time in my crafting career and have totally fallen in love with them. My element of blue is there in one of the ladies dress and in the stamp cut out (Something Blue). After I cut out the things I needed from the pattern paper, I designed the placement of each element and once satisfied stuck them in the required fashion with the help of Mod Podge. 

Once dry, I have applied two generous coats of varnish allowing 3-4 hours of drying time between each layer.

On the spine of the book box,  I have painted it with Red Vintage Chalk paints from Cadence and then using drying brush technique given it some coloured layer of Teal Blue and Dark Blue (Something Blue).

I have then used clear wax to seal the paint and allowed it dry for few days (Minimum 7 days) 

I have also added a bit blue on the two edges of the box

Hope you liked the inspiration for the Challenge and that its inspired you enough to take part in the Challenge. Details of the Challenge are on the TTC Blog 

Happy Crafting 

Saumya