Recently I found two framed paintings at an estate sale that needed some love. It was obvious someone had spent put a lot of effort into the paintings, and was proud enough of them to frame them.
The problem was, I just didn't care for them. They looked a little too amateur-ish, and the colors were a bit garish. The frames were very nice, though, and that's why I bought them.
Once home, I tried to decide what to do with my new acquisitions. The frames had no glass, so I wanted to use them as they were, without adding the additional expense of having glass cut. So I flipped the canvas boards over and created a collage of torn paper with beautiful handwriting and yellowed book pages for a nice background. Mod Podge in the matte version was essential for this step, using basic decoupage technique.
After I created a background, I cut two pieces of upholstery webbing at an angle to resemble flower pots. This is very easy, because the webbing has stripes on it that you can use as a guide.
I glued the little flowerpots on the collaged background, then gathered bits of lace, buttons, some paper bits and millinery leaves and flowers. Using my hot glue gun, I made a floral arrangement by gluing the bits in a pleasing arrangement.
I decided to add a little pink paint to one of the frames to give it a little more color.
If you want to try something similar, I don't think a tutorial is necessary. Just take a close look at the layers of paper, felt, and embellishments:
That's pretty much it. Now whoever owns this in the future has two options: they can enjoy my mixed-media collage or flip it over and have themselves a brightly colored acrylic painting! After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it's nice to have options, don't you think?
Mitzi
I'm participating in the favecrafts Blog Hop for August, 2011:
