Shabby Dressed Papier Mache' Heart Keepsake Box

Hello sweet friends.

It's another day to CeLeBrAtE life's

goodness and beauty. 

It just has to be a choice sometimes.

And, today, I wish for you the strength

to look beyond those bumps in your road

and find the exquisite in the everyday.

*********

In the following photos,

I'd like to share with you a papier mache' 

heartbox that I found at a Goodwill 

several years ago.

As you will see, it's

all dressed up Shabby. 

This is one of my favorite things to do!

Find something with so much

potential and just let my heart and

hands go while trusting the process.

Sometimes it can be a little scarey because

I don't know where I'm going but

that's all part of the journey and learning!

 I always forget my before photos and so I 

cheated and found this one online.

So... TaDa!

This is before her makeover.

I don't have photos of the entire process

because it was very involved.

But I will share the basics and I

would be glad to answer any questions.

The first thing I did was to Gesso 

the box. This covers and 

water-resists the paper 

for painting or glueing, inking, or 

whatever wet medium 

you may want to use.

 I also gessoed some old sheet music.

It gives it a washed sort of look that I love.

There are many places online where you

can learn how and where to use 

this very versatile product. 

I then dry-brush painted the box with 

Vintage White acrylic, craft paint. 

The little texturing that you see here

was done with a gesso 

and Vintage White paint mixture.

Gesso is white and I wanted 

the creamy look and so I

 just mixed some of the paint with it!

Another wonderful thing about gesso (love it)

Is that you can tint it any color you want!

I spread a little on and then I took 

my french script rubber stamp 

and stamped the image on it.

After it dried, I rubbed 

a little Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and

 Frayed Burlap over it

to give it that color.

This tearing back of the paper

was a look that I had seen all around online 

in mixed-media projects and in 

card making. It's very simple.

I just dampened the paper and very carefully

 tore the size opening that I wanted. 

The gesso makes the paper a bit stiff

when the water dries which helps

it to hold it's shape. I then, 

with my finger, just carefully

rubbed some Frayed Burlap 

Distress Ink on it.

I also distressed the edges of the box 

and the sheet music 

 with a mix of dark and pink inks.

I really like to mix 

tattered and grungy with

 sparkle and elegance. To me,

they just seem to compliment 

each other so beautifully.

Do you like the grayish-green leaves?

I wasn't sure at first but the fabric

matched the color hues and so I went

 with it. Do you think it blends well?

 (I am not good at color blending! 

I have learned a lot from

others but I still have to  

ask my family for their input at times :)

To get the the pink splattered look,

I used the Perfect Pearls Forever Violet

spray from Ranger. It can be messy!

I hold my piece over 

my large trash basket and spray carefully. 

It takes some experimenting. 

You can add a little or a lot and 

the shimmer of the pearl 

is very subtle.

The embellishments were 

just what I had on hand.

 Fabric yo-yos...

shabby flowers... rhinestones... tulle...

I just love the mauve flower.

It's made from a thrifted, silk shirt. 

That's where I come by most of my 

fabrics for my crafting.

I wanted the inside to be somewhat finished

so it could be used for special keepsakes

but I really didn't want to line it. And so 

 I decided to paint/gessso it and then I made this

little lacey pillow to lay in the bottom.

It's up-cycled from a thrifted curtain.

The sweet bear came home with me from

a thrifting adventure as well. This post 

wasn't supposed to be about thrifting

but you can sure see how many ways

to save on your crafting supplies!

Well, I hope that you've 

enjoyed the project

and that I've shared some tips 

that have been helpful.

This project was a lot of fun but it

did take a while in the thinking of

the design. I'd love to hear about any projects

that you've been working on. 

Or just say hello!

Have a wonderful day and thank you so

much for stopping by.

Tamara xo

I'm joining the party at
Share Your Cup Thursday!
The Enchanting Rose

(oh my! I just noticed that the corners of some of my pictures are
edited differently. And it would take a lot of effort to fix them all,
including re-doing this entire post!  I'm sorry.. It seems that no matter how I try,
my "fine details" are a bit quirky.. I guess that's partly who I am.
Thanks  for understandin'!)