New Dream Catcher

Hi WoW peeps, welcome to the New Year, here's hoping it's a ripper!

Today I'm sharing with you an awesome off the page piece, a 12" diameter MDF Dream Catcher I have altered as a gift for my boy when he turns 21 this year. I love how this turned out, let me show you how I did it.

I started by adding lots of colour (Dylusions and Perfect Pearls), inspired by the beautiful water colour challenge this month

(see end of post). Once dry I inked all the inside edges black with a Copic marker.

I used  a 12" x 12" white card to mop all the wet colour up and stuck a piece of black card to the back of it. With the black facing forward and the colour-on-white facing back I glued it to the back of the dream catcher and trimmed off the excess, sanding around the edge for a nice finish. I sprayed the front with lots of gold shimmer to make it shine, and it does :-) I also added the challenge quote using a Motex labeller which has a nice art-deco font. I removed the lower panels with a craft knife (and sanding with a file) to allow for feather hanging space.

The back was also inked with a black inkpad and sprayed gold.

The 3 MDF feathers that came with the dream catcher, along with a few real (white) ones were also given the same colour treatment. I coloured some of the white feathers with grey to add some contrast. They all got gold shimmer.

To attach them to the dream catcher required a little ingenuity, I wanted it to look clean and stream-lined so this is what I did....

With a fine line of liquid glue (Tombow Mono-Multli - green) I stuck the string (also sprayed gold and dried) along the shaft of the feather. I covered the join with a strip of co-ordinating washi tape. For the MDF feathers I threaded them with leather thonging, sticking it to itself before the next step.

I then used 3mm double sided tape and wound a 3mm yellow ribbon along the shaft to cover the washi, tucking the string end back under itself using a fine quilling tool. To ensure this doesn't come apart I painted the whole ribbon bit, and up along the string, with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam which acts as a glue and dries to a gorgeous shiny gold sparkle. 

I tied all the feathers to the bottom of the dream catcher using a half hitch knot and reinforced the knot with Glimmer Glam. I left the tails of the leather thonging long and glued some bright orange feathers onto them, covering the join with beads (and glue down the middle). The tails of string I cut short.

And this is the final product. Took me a while but I seriously love it!

Inspired by our current challenge

Come and join us, click on the image above to go to the blog, or see us on Facebook and share your creations.

Happy New Year may it be full of creativity.

Altering MDF

Hi Everyone,

I thought I might share with you some ideas for preparing/altering MDF.

Words or Whatever not only have a range of wonderful Chipboard, but also they have a huge range of MDF products, including Albums and Off the Page products.

MDF is so simple to dress up with paint. Here is 3 different looks that I have created using the same two shades of Pink.

Firstly paint the MDF with an acrylic paint….(I like to rummage through the cheap bins of paint at hardware and paint stores, you can usually pick up mis-mixes for about $5.00 per litre)

Now for the techniques

1. CRACKLE –As I have got a contrasting colour I want to use, and this is a large surface area I have used Jo Sonjas 'Decor Crackle' medium for this project.

You just brush on the medium, let it become touch dry, then cover with your contrasting colour of acrylic paint. Remember, whichever way your brush strokes go on the topcoat, is the direction you will see the cracked effect. Also remember to allow it to dry naturally, don’t force dry with this medium. The thicker the top coat the bolder the crackle effect.

2. SANDING – apply the top thin coat of paint, and allow to dry (I speed up the process with the hot air gun). Then grab some sand paper and rub back to your hearts content. Focus more around the edges, and do random patches of sanding over the item.

3. DECORATE WITH PAPER – Finally for this one I have applied a top coat of the acrylic paint, and while wet, I dabbed off the excess with paper towel. This gave a mottled effect, I then lightly sanded the edges. Next layer your paper as you wish. ModgePodge, is great for sticking paper to MDF. Coat the whole back of the paper or cardstock using a paintbrush and when in the position you want, use a brayer or rolling pin to flatten out any air bubbles.

These boxes are a custom made order that WORDS or WHATEVER – WOW created for me…thanks Suzanne and Neil. They are to be used to hold paper and will be recessed into a stud wall, to maximize space in my scrap area.

See you next post

TTFN

Kimmi xx