I love houses and birds, and Prima's Altered Bird House Frame was calling my name when I saw it. I had such fun altering this piece into one of my favourite home decor items. It is quite large, 3.5 x 7 x 9.75 in, and you can fit lots of little things into the shadow box part of the frame, as well as on the edges. Just imagine how many different themes could work in a frame like this. I used a recent favourite photo of Anton, taken by Alet Groenewald.
The frame contains lots of details and techniques and I turned it into a tutorial.
Start by covering the metal with gesso, to give the paint something to adhere to easier. Leave to dry.
Paint the bird house with Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Paint.
When the paint is dry, stamp it here and there with a Prima text stamp and Archival Jet Black ink.
I decided that I wanted some lovely cracks on the bird house, and Texture Paste White Crackle makes this very easy. Smear it here and there on the roof with a palette knife. The thicker the application, the larger the cracks.
For the sides, I used a butterfly stencil, still applying the paste with a palette knife. Leave to dry.
Paint over the crackles with watered-down Broken China paint.
Continue with watered-down Walnut Stain, letting it drip down.
At that stage, I decided that I wanted some darker colours on the house and built up layers of Walnut Stain, Umber and finally some orange Patina Ink. I also dry brushed a little white paint here and there.
Cover glossy paper with Ranger's Foil Sheet and colour with a mix of Patina and Alcohol inks. Start with the Patina ink and apply with a paint brush and then drop alcohol ink on top. Die cut Sizzix/Prima Rondeaux from it.
I love these Stamp-n-add sets, also by Prima. You can mix and match them to create a large variety of dragonflies, butterflies, moths or angels. I stamped the butterflies, dragonflies and moths on two pieces of patterned paper, cut them out, inked the edges and added a metallic embellishment to them. The metallic parts were altered with alcohol ink and paint.
The bird house of course needed some birds too, and these Prima Shabby Chic Resin Birds were painted with Distress Paint.
I cut out and apart the photo that I was using, to be able to build a 3D scene in my bird house. Ink the edges with Gathered Twigs.
I filled two Corked Vials with Prima beads, two colours of mica flakes and little bits and pieces I found on my desk. The bottles were distressed with alcohol ink and some white paint. The Letterpress number was also painted white.
When dry, sand off some of the colour from the number. I also used label stickers and stamped a word and my son's initial with Jet Black ink, using my favourite Hero Arts alphabet stamp set.
The moth was adhered with foam dots. Shape the wings a little to give it life. While I was working on this, my son stamped a whole lot of butterflies, dragonflies and moths for himself.
Since the box is quite deep you can add a lot of items into it. My son picked this stone up outside his school. The gears were glued at an angle for more dimension.
I used linen ribbon and an old buckle at the front of the bird house, tying the ribbon all around the house.
Glue a moth to the roof of the house with matte multi medium.
And a moth to the other side of the roof. I love this one with the inspire zipper body.
Place a blob of 3D Gloss Gel on the frame and press a Philosophy tag into it. Sprinkle beads all around. The gel will hold everything in place.
On the edges of the frame I adhered some Tim Holtz rubs, since I wanted to add more words to the bird house. I like words and thought it had too few.
Glue the Letterpress number to the front of the bird house. I love these.
He is sitting in an old suitcase on the photo and I placed a bird cage cut out from one of the patterned papers with foam dots on top, as if it was hanging from the suitcase.
The magic bottle has a bit of a history. Anton poured all kinds of different things into a bottle at home once last year, which we called the 'magic' bottle. He had an idea that a chicken would grow in the bottle and appear one morning. This bottle is in memory of that other bottle.
The bird at the top of the bird house was painted with Distress Paint and a tiny bit of Patina Ink. I also gave it eyes with a marker.
Another piece of fabric dyed with Distress Spray Stain was tied around the bird. I found a ball chain on my desk and distressed it with alcohol ink.
A sentiment was rubbed on the Enameled Tag and I painted Peacock Feathers here and there around the edges.
More beads were glued to the roof, using the 3D Gel. Here you can also see the lovely cracks better.
The second resin bird was glued to the roof of the bird house, and there is a bee rub-on too.
On the other side of the house, you'll find the butterfly, with a trail of beads.
And more beads, I love the look these gave to the bird house. I haven't used seed beads in quite a while and it was fun doing so again.
The stenciled crackle butterflies on the side of the house were also quite heavily distressed with paint.
Here you get a better view of the one side of the house. I love all these different textures.
The other side looks like this. You could alter this bird house in so many different ways and it is real fun to decide what items to place inside it and around the edges.
I hope you will join us this week in our anything goes challenge! As every week, on random participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and can do some fun shopping.
Thank you so much for stopping by today!!
Happy crafting!
Anna-Karin
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