Recycled Bottle and Glass Mixed Media with Powertex

I simply love to recycle, upcycle and repurpose so this project using a recycled wine bottle and a set of cheap cocktail glasses from the charity shop was a perfect project for me. I also used some of my old T shirts and fabric scraps too.

This set is now perfect for any festive or celebratory occasion. The bottle could be used either as a decanter (by using with a bottle stopper or cork) or used with a slim candle to adorn the table. Using Powertex enables items to be easily washed too.

Materials used:

• Recycled wine bottle, set of old cocktail glasses
• Recycled T shirt and cotton sheet, knitted fabric, canvas mesh and hessian (burlap) scraps
• Kitchen paper
• Plaster figurine small face
• 3D Sand
• Stone Art
• Mixed silicone moulds from my stash – leaves and fruit (mainly from Katy Sue Designs)
• Synthetic Brushes
• Powertex Fabric Hardener: Blue, Bronze, Ivory and Transparent
• Ready Mixed Bister Liquids: Brown, Red
• Powercolor Pigments: Ultramarine, Burgundy, Titanium White
• Colotricx Pigment: Rich Gold
• The Secret Art Loft Pigments: Green Ginger, Violet Valentine, Blue Curacao, Limoncello Gold, Tequila Sunrise
• The Secret Art Loft Acrylic Paints: Lemon Meringue, Raspberry Sorbet, Plum Pudding, Blueberry Pie, Mint Jelly, Key Lime, Orange Marmalade
• Easy Varnish

How it was done:

The bottle was actually a project that I started on my level 1 Powertex Tutor training. I was fairly happy with it but I had always wanted to take it a few steps further. I am definitely a ‘more is more’ type of girl and I wanted to add extra embellishments to complete it – but what? Sadly it got confined to the corner for over a year before the idea finally came to me when I came home from the charity shop with my set of cocktail glasses.

The lemon coloured glasses inspired citrus, the blue coloured glasses inspired berries – yay – off we go!

Starting with my bottle: Blue Powertex medium was used to coat recycled T shirt fabrics and hessian which was draped around the bottle to give texture. Kitchen paper was separated into single ply and blue Powertex was used to glue it around the neck of the bottle to give added texture. Blue Powertex was also used to paint and glue the plaster face.

Eeeek – I was freaking out a bit this stage as it looked awful. I will say that this was part of the training. We were given a few challenges! The blue is a gorgeous colour but not necessarily the easiest for your first ventures. If you are a beginner I would recommend starting with Bronze Powertex and colouring as I did for the blue glasses as given below; achieving a similar final result with less palpitations – tee hee.

Spritzing with Brown and Red Bister gave a nice purple muted effect which was lovely, and also blended in the darker T shirt material nicely. Powercolor and Colortricx Pigments were mixed with Easy Varnish and dry brushed over the piece to highlight textures. The dry brushing really does make so much difference! Ooooh much happier now, but as I said – it needed more work in my mind.

Now for the embellishments: With fruit embellishments in mind I mixed up some Stone Art with Ivory Powertex to make a clay and used silicone moulds to make citrus slices, nuts, leaves and berries. Once dry I used Secret Art Loft Acrylics to paint them.

When painting the fruit slices the outer ring of pith was left unpainted. Dry brushing with Ivory Powertex was used to highlight the central pith texture and make the lemon slices look more realistic.

The same with the orange slices.

The berries and nuts were also painted with Secret Art Loft Acrylics. I mixed colours to give a more naturalistic look.

Varying colour mixes and depth.

Purples, pinks, oranges and green mixes were used to colour the berries. Once coated with varnish (last steps) they looked quite realistic.

Various fruits, nuts and leaves were used to embellish the bottle. Items were stuck down using Transparent Powertex. Where needed 3D sand was mixed with Bronze Powertex in order to make a 3D glue to stick down shaped embellishments on the textural surface.

Yay – fulfilling my ‘more is more’ – ha ha.

Secret Art Loft pigments were mixed with varnish and were dry brushed over textured areas and over the berries to give extra pearlescent sheen.

Coloured Powertex is weatherproof and therefore washable. Acrylic paint layers were further protected by painting with Easy varnish to ensure that the bottle was fully washable. The varnish also enhanced the painting and gave the fruits and berries a lovely sheen. Happy bunny.

Next to decorate the glasses: I collected together varied textural fabrics. The blue background is my plastic shower curtain that I use to cover my bench – joyous messiness evident!

The glass stems and base of the bowls were painted with a coat of bronze Powertex. Any drips were removed with a damp cloth. T shirt fabric was cut into strips and stretched to make a ‘cord’ for wrapping the stems. More fabrics and T shirt strips were coated with Bronze Powertex and wrapped around the glass bowls. The T shirt cord held everything in place around the top of the glasses while drying. I applied the main 3D texture just to one face, leaving the backs flatter (otherwise they might get in the way when drinking from the glasses). The smoother stems made them easy and comfortable to hold.

The blue glasses were embellished with berries and textures enhanced with dry brushing using the blue/purple toned Secret Art Loft Pigments.

Oooh yummy.

The yellow glasses were embellished with citrus slices and textures enhanced with dry brushing using the citrus and gold toned Secret Art Loft Pigments.

More yummy.

I hope that you like my celebratory table set. I really enjoy making these – and using now them – special glasses seem to make the contents more special too.

Happy crafting, Anne x.

Unicorn Blessings

Hi all, today I am sharing one of my projects created during the Powertex Garden Party in July. It was an amazing weekend and I went along with my ex’s lovely daughter Marie. Living far apart we rarely get the chance to be together – so it was extra special to have a whole weekend creating together.

Others also came along with friends or family but many came along on their own. Some were familiar with Powertex and some, like Marie, were completely new to the medium. Whether experienced or not, travelling with friends or alone, the Team at Powertex were wonderfully inviting and everyone soon felt relaxed and eager to get started. Tracey gave us all fabulous instructions to help us along the way. It was a wonderfully relaxed weekend and we made many new friends.

One of the projects was to create a Unicorn (or pony if preferred). We were taken through the process and instructed on the appropriate media to create a fully weatherproof piece that could be used as a garden ornament.

We were all give a Metal Base with attached MDF Unicorn Template which had already been wrapped with masking tape ready for working.

The first step was to paint the whole with a base layer of Bronze Powertex. Then layers of Powertex clay (created with Powertex and Stone Art) were built onto the surface and texturised using wooden print blocks and various tools. The Team had kindly mixed up the clay ready for us to use.

We then had a choice of floral silicone moulds to use to make pretty clay embellishments. I chose the lovely Daisy Moulds.

Next we treated Powercotton fibres with Powertex to create the mane and tail. Pigment colours were used to add colour. I chose to blend a mix of Ultramarine and Titanium White, plus Burgundy and Titanium White Powercolors, mixed with Easy Varnish and a little water to create a blended colour wash.

Next we dry brushed more colour over the surface to pick up and emphasise the texture. I used Colortricx in Silver.

When I got home I added a bit more colouring by dry brushing with Rich Gold Colortricx and Interference Violet (Secret Art Loft Pigment).

If you know me you will know that I cannot resist a bit of bling. I just had to try adding glitter to the varnish and painted this onto the tail and mane. I used a holographic silvery glitter designed to be added to household paint. In theory it should be weatherproof when embedded in the Easy Varnish (will see how it holds up after she is installed in the garden). Oooooh I love her.

Note: There is a Unicorn Dreams Project Pack available which contains everything needed to create your own magical Unicorn – includes metal base, MDF Unicorn, Powertex, Art Stone, Flower Mould, Pigments, Varnish and instructions.

I also decided to add a little more texture to the base. I added a rough layer of clay and pressed in a crackle textured rubber stamp. I also added 3D Sand and Balls. Finally I treated a few stiff hessian threads with Powertex and pushed them into the clay to create grassy fronds. Various colours were dry brushed over the surface to blend in the base colours with the rest of the project.

Here is Marie’s amazing Unicorn. Truly fantastic.

We all had so much fun and between us created an amazing array of very different takes on this theme. All wonderful.

Sending Unicorn Blessings, Anne x.

Dream, Wish, Create a Beautiful World

This lovely image of a young girl (Victorian Photographs Rice Paper) really called to me and inspired me to make this piece. To me she portrayed a young girl that had experienced in her life far more than any child should. Alone she would dream and wish for a better world. Her creativity would enable her to escape from the trauma and open the door to a world full of beauty.

I know that many can testify that using imagination and creativity really does take them to a happy place and can increase wellbeing. Sorry, maybe a bit heavy? I hope that you like the ‘beautiful world’ that I have created.

I first collected together lots of elements from my stash; a small wooden pallet (15cm square from Art-C), a thick greyboard panel with frame (13.5cm X 5cm, 6cm X 2cm centre, from Tando Creative) plus smaller panel, silicone moulds to create flowers and fern, MDF Heart Keyplate, Penny Washer and Heart Flower (Powertex), scraps cotton fabric and lace.

I created the flowers and ferns using silicone moulds and Stone Art Clay. Stone Art was mixed approx. 50:50 with Ivory Powertex plus a little Transparent Powertex. Ivory Poweretex was also used to coat the inner greyboard pieces.

The wooden pallet and remaining greyboard and MDF pieces were coated with a leftovers mix of Powertex (mainly Lead and Ivory). I keep any leftover Powertex in recycled little takeaway sauce pots (plastic with fully airtight lids). My mix gave a lovely warm grey colour.

I spread Easy Structure Paste across the centre of the pallet and then spritzed with Green Bister.

The rice paper images were applied to the Ivory Powertex coated panels using Easy Coat Mat Medium. Note: the sentiment is actually snipped from the ‘Creative Paper’ branding down the side of the paper. I also used some small leftover snips from a floral paper.

Cotton fabric was treated with Ivory Powertex and draped diagonally across the middle. More texture was added using 3D Sand & Balls.

The flowers, ferns, Heart Flower and Penny Washer were coloured with Acrylic Inks; Palm Leaf, Viola, Viola Metallic and Golden Metallic. A little gold colour was also applied to the edges of the keyplate and image panels, plus drizzled onto the texture paste. The fabric was spritzed with a little Green Bister.

A strip of thin fabric braid was treated with Powertex, coiled tightly into a spiral, and added to the MDF flower centre (coloured with gold ink when dry). A sheet of Angelina fibre was created by ironing heat fusible sparkly fibres between sheets of baking parchment. I collected together a few snips of lace plus some Powercotton.

Next I put it all together. I hung a small metal ‘wish’ charm from the base.

I used Easy Structure Paste through the Duo Arty Quotes Mini Stencil to add the ‘Dream’ sentiment.

More Acrylic Ink colour was dry brushed over textured areas.

I love the new Acrylic Inks. The fluid formula enables you to drizzle areas with intense colour too.

I was really pleased with my ‘Dream, Create, Wish’ mini artwork. I think that I might just have to keep this one for me.

Off to get busy as I have so many ideas. I will share more soon. Hugs all xxx.

Medieval Chalice created with Powertex

I had fun creating a medieval chalice from an old glass that I have had for years. If you look closely it is actually made from a recycle wine bottle cut in half. The old bottle base is cut off and stuck to the bottle pouring top. The upturned bottle therefore making a new glass. I didn’t make it myself but it was a present from my ex’s daughter and has sentimental value. Now I have a super chalice to fill with cider and enjoy my drink along with good memories.

I wanted to keep the rim of the glass clean as I intend to use it as a drinking glass. I can clean the inside properly and around the rim etc. after use. The outer decoration will be ok with rinsing but obviously will be washed with more care.

For those that of not heard of Powertex – it is a non-toxic environmentally friendly fabric hardener that can be used to treat natural fibres (cotton, wool, silk, wood, MDF etc.) and create items that are weatherproof.

I first stamped some tissue paper (recycled packaging) with Versamark Ink and heat embossed the script image (Butterfly Poppy Collage set from Chocolate Baroque) with metallic gold embossing powder. I also collected some MDF embellishments ready for decorating. The Ankh is from the Pyramid and Ank Trio set, the hares and small cross from the Mini Hieroglyphs set.

As I wanted to keep the glass for functional use I didn’t want to completely cover it with texture and wanted to keep the stem area comfortable to hold. I first painted a band of black ‘all surfaces’ weatherproof glitter paint (Black Diamonds Crystal Glitter) onto the glass to add some interest and texture which will show through the background areas that I wanted to keep fairly smooth. The gold paint that you can see on the base was done some years ago with glass paints – I covered this up in later steps.

Next I tore areas of the script paper and applied them over the glass stem and bowl using Easycoat Mat Decoupage Medium. Tip: I used a water pen to draw around the pieces that I wanted, making it easy to tear shapes in a more controlled way. I sprayed with a little Green Bister just to blend in a little (dabbing off excess dribbles) where the white tissue paper was a little obvious.

Next was true happiness – a fist full of Powertex Clay – tee hee. I mixed some Stone Art with Bronze Powertex (approx. 50:50) with a small addition of Transparent Powertex, working it well into a non-sticky consistency.

Next I cut of square of T shirt fabric to cover the glass base and treated it with Bronze Powertex. I also treated a strip of T-shirt yarn and used it to secure the fabric over the stem base, then wrapped it up around the glass. Snips of textured lace were treated and added around the base plus a strip of treated lace was added to create a border around the top.

A rough slab of clay was rolled out and impressed using the text stamp. This was glued onto the glass front using Powertex. Stems and leaves were moulded by hand and ‘glued’ in place along with the MDF embellishments. Where needed a little Easy Structure Paste was used as a 3D ‘glue’ (painted over with Bronze Powertex to hide the white colour). A faux gem was stuck into the centre of the ankh.

The chalice was then left to dry for a couple of hours.

Next came the fun of dry brushing. I used Rich Gold Colortricx mixed with Easy Varnish first. It looked a little uninteresting in just the one colour so I also dry brushed with some of the new Aqua Metallic Acrylic Ink. Both of these dry very quickly so I just repeated layers of dry brushing until I was happy with the result.

I will leave the vessel for a couple of weeks to fully dry and cure before giving it a final all over coat of Easy Varnish to fully seal it. Et voila! My lovely new drinking vessel. I cannot wait to use it.