Anything But Cute-Mixed Media Challenge # 10-Grungy Love

Hello crafty friends!   It's time for our second challenge of the year at  Anything But Cute, and I'm your hostess this month.  I chose "Grungy Love" as our theme this time. I'll share the details of the challenge, but first here is my grungy Valentine gift box.

To celebrate St. Valentine's Day, we would like to see you make a Gungy Valentine's project for your sweetheart!  It can be a card, tag, or anything else you might give a loved one to show them how much you care.  Just be sure it's grungy!

Here is what my box looked like before I added black gesso, painted metallic paper, and handmade and altered embellishments.

To start, I gave the box a coat of black gesso, inside and out.  I traced around the lid onto card stock and cut out the heart, and measured and cut card to fit around the sides.Next  I did a little variation of a Tim Holtz technique from his Volume 3 Compendium of Curiosities. I added Distress paints in Wilted Violet, Chipped Sapphire, Shaded Lilac, Peeled Paint and Picket Fence randomly on the card, spritzed and blended some. I dried it completely.  It's not important what this looks like because next I covered it with Distress paint in Antiqued Bronze, spritz and flicked with water, and dried just until the paint that didn't have water on it was dry.  I quickly placed a paper towel over the surface, pressed it down to absorb the wet areas and quickly peeled it off to reveal the "chipped metal" surface.  I dried this well, and applied Black Soot Distress paint, and while wet flicked on some rubbing alcohol with my splatter brush.  I let this dry overnight, as it remains tacky for a while, but you could probably dry with a heat tool.  I know I could take this one step further, but I pretty much ran out of time at this point. Have fun with changing colors when you try this technique.  You can get many looks out of it.

              I love this mottled organic look  the alcohol splatter creates.

When dry, I carefully adhered it to the top and sides of the box, making sure my lid would fit back on.  I couldn't put the paper all the way to the top of the base, because the fit of the lid was too snug. But leaving it with just the gesso along the upper rim looks fine. The last photo in this series shows where I've popped the lid up a little so you can see where the paper I made ends. I also repeated this technique on the side of the lid, but directly on the lid, not on card.  I like how you can see the original embossing, since it tends to resist the paint.  And you can see a little red poking out here and there. I added wooden bling to the sides of the lid. The last photo in this series shows where I've popped the lid up a little so you can see where the paper I made ends.

. I just added gesso to the bottom and did the little trick with a paper towel to get this grungy romantic look. I love how you can see the embossing that was originally on the box through the gesso. The pattern of the paper towel adds a little visual texture as well. Sorry for the extra particles; I was taking some photos outside and must have picked up some junk from the deck.

Next I worked on my embellishments.  The hearts are Tim Holtz Heartfelt die cuts, which I painted with Golden Cadmium Red Medium Hue. I followed Pamellia's tutorial to make the cracks, using  DecoArt Weathered Wood and  DecoArt Media Crackle Glaze. To show off the cracks, I wiped on some DecoArt Media Raw Umber Antiquing Cream, let it set up a minute, and wiped off the excess, leaving it in the cracks.Next I heat embossed the three largest hearts with Tim Holtz Boundless Flight flourish and Ranger Copper Embossing Powder. I heat embossed the smallest heart on the chain with Emerald Creek's Burnt Copper Leaves.

I heat embossed the chain with brown embossing puffs and black UTEE and dabbed on a tiny bit of Cracked Pistachio Distress paint. The XO are old Tim Holtz Grungeboard letters which I embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder then painted with Cracked Pistachio and heat embossed with Burnt Copper Leaves, copper embossing powder, and Embossing Puffs.

 The tag is from an old hot water heater (grungy, right?). I swiped Versamark ink on the flat side of the inside of a Tim Holtz Texture Fade, inserted the tag into the folder and embossed. I used Embossing Puffs to heat emboss and blended with Ground Expresso ink and spritzed with Ground Expresso Spray stain.The small heart was crackled in the same manner as the larger hearts, but  after the Crackle Glaze dried, I heated it with my heat gun and sprinkled with copper embossing powder and heated once more to emboss.

The Crinkle ribbon  was hand died with Ground Expresso Distress ink and Perfect Copper spray and twisted up into a bow to complete my grungy Valentine's box..

We hope you will join us in our Grungy Love challenge! Remember you can enter a card, tag or any other project you might make for your sweetheart--just BE SURE IT'S GRUNGY!

I would like to enter my box into the following inspiring challenges:

-Frilly and Funkie Enjoy Your Embossing I did!

-Emerald Creek Dares Valentine's Is NOT in the Air Well, I DO love grunge!

Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenges-February-Anything Goes- Steampunk/Industrial

Mixed Media Place Creative Gym #16 New Beginnings I gave my old candy box, an old necklace chain and an old tag a new beginning as a grungy gift box.

-We Love to Create Challenge 3 Anything Creative Mixed Media Goes

Southern Ridge Trading Co. Anything Love! My little hearts may be red, but my big heart box is a non traditional color.

Country View February Challenge Make your Own Background

The Artistic Stamper February Creative Challenge-HeArt Art You need to look very closely for my stamping...it's Tim Holtz Boundless Flight Flourish on each of the three largest red hearts. I stamped  and embossed the 3 hearts.

Vintage Stamping Challenges # 41 Splatters and Drips My splatters are in the "copper" background; made by splattering alcohol onto paint. My smallest heart on the chain is dripping and splattered with copper embossing. My stamp is Tim Holtz boundless Flight flourish stamped and embossed on the three largest red hearts.
A Vintage Journey-February Challenge-Industrial  I was going for an aged copper look.

UPDATE: Yipppeee!

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your amazing comments!  I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily