Altered Monday- Butterfly in Bronze

Welcome to a brand new week, and a new Altered Monday post on Smeared and Smudged. A couple weeks back I had a little shopping splurge at Michael's $1 spot; they had alot of tiny items priced at 39 cents, 49 cents...you get the picture. I found some large and flat circle magnets and decided to buy a couple. They were decorated with scenes of country houses, apples, and sunflowers. Anyone who knows me (or follows this blog) probably suspects that country is not my style, and you're right! I HAD to alter!

I have one of them done and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the result. This is one of a handful of projects where I have stamped into clay, and I'm loving it more each time I do it. I started off by covering the whole magnet with a coat of bronzy-colored nail poish. This was easier than using paint because the magnet was very slick, so the polish adhered better and gave it a cool shimmer. Then I rolled out some super sculpey and stamped wing images into it. The images are from The Enchanted Gallery.

After preheating the oven, I rolled some aluminum foil into an egg shape and used it to place my cut out wings over so they would bake with some shape to them. I followed the intructions on the box for baking, let the wings cool, and then painted with acrylics.

To embellish the butterfly I used some old beads that I've been hanging on to, a broken necklace, and some bronze wire. I stuck the butterfly to the magnet using really REALLY strong glue, E600. And here's the result:







The magnet is pretty simple as far as the amount of stuff on it, but I think it's beautiful! I enjoyed making it and will be altering the other two magnets soon in a similar way; I'll share when I'm done.

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to join me tomorrow for the Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge!

Altered Monday: Domino Book Belts

Well, this is one of those long lost projects that I started right before our big cross country move. I got about half way done, then put it away. I've finally finished!

These are called book belts, which are similar to book marks, but have a piece of elastic that wraps all the way through the inside of the book to hold your page. They are really cool because they're not as easy to loose as bookmarks, and you can make them as elaborate as you want since the decoration is held on the outside of the book.

I made mine out of dominos that I altered. The images are from an old Stampin' Up hostess set called Organic Grace. I used acrylic paint, gold leafing, and embossing powder to add details to the Stazon-stamped images. I also added in some gold wire as embellishment. After finishing the dominos, I attached ribbon and completed the belt with a piece of elastic that is only seen on the inside of the book and holds your page. You can see the elastic in the last picture.

I will say that next time I make these I will probably go for some chord elastic and find a nifty way to attach it to the ribbon so it looks nicer, but I'm happy with these and they will get lots of use! My two oldest daughters have already claimed their favorites.

Altered Monday: Garden District Mini Notebook

For some reason, this image from Invoke Arts that I used on the mini notebook always reminds me of the old South. Swamps, decaying plantations, moss, ladies sitting in rockers on screened in porches wearing their priceless family heirlooms and sipping sweet tea. I don't know, maybe it's the hat, but I always think of downtown Charleston or the Garden District in New Orleans.

So, I decided this notebook needed to be both grotesque and beautiful at the same time, just like a swamp. I think I achieved the effect I was looking for. I found the mini notebook with pen attached and used alcohol inks, embossing powder, and ink pads to add the coloring. The flowers and leaves came from a broken bracelet that I had, which I think worked very nicely. It's a pretty different looking notebook, I'm sure not everyone would like to carry it around, but I really enjoyed making it and can't wait to use it!