Guest Designer - Rupa

Please say hello and give a warm welcome to our Guest Designer for this month, Rupa of Tofa (Together for Arts).

I am Rupa (45yrs) from Bangalore, India, married and blessed with 2 kids (a son and a daughter).

My interest in arts started when I got married and had to set up my own house. I had a flair for interior decoration but no formal training, which is when I started learning various forms of art and painting just to decorate “my home”! After the birth of my first son (a child with special needs) I was forced to be a stay at home mom and that’s when my passion and hobby became work too. I started taking art classes from home and have been doing so last 15 yrs and still do. My son now is 17 yrs and I have a 7yr old daughter too and my entire family is very supportive of my passion.

My entry into crafting was 4 years back. I discovered my style was Vintage with lots of textures and most importantly, altered art. My unique selling point is up cycling and have hoarded a lot of trash at home and they all get their time to get pampered and have a new lease of life. I see a canvas in any neglected item or house hold trash and love giving them a makeover. These not only serve as home decor items but also have a utilitarian value! Now that’s living your second life to the fullest! A deserving re birth, what say???

If you wish to see my works, do visit my blog at http://rupastofa.blogspot.in/ and my FB page link is https://www.facebook.com/Togetherforarts/?ref=bookmarks

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Good morning!

I am glad to share with you my Guest design post with Stamps and Stencils. This is indeed a great honor for me and I enjoyed making this to suit their current challenge theme, PAINT, TEXTURE and CRACKLE. I love all the three things in the challenge and I had to of course use a recycled item to satisfy my creative soul and so used this empty detergent box .

I scraped the box a bit with sand paper and gave it 2 coats of Deco art chalky finish paint (Vintage). It’s a lovely color very rustic and vintage, not too bright just perfect for what I had in mind.

I did some dry brushing with black gesso just to highlight the texture and give it a weathered look.

Then came the crackle paint from Deco Art, to which I added some raw umber acrylic paint and then spread it on the sides of the box. I left is to dry naturally and then appeared the fine cracks.

I used the wood grain stamp and some brown ink to add more texture and character to the box.

I had a piece of coffee stained paper in my stash and using the individual alphabets stamp set, I stamped the words “SPICE GARDEN “ on it. I hope you get a hint on what I am making now, lol!

I also had this vintage post card image to which I attached the stamped paper. This is the front label on the box.

I fixed it to the box with a few brads and then applied some rust powder with vinegar on it to give it a rusty old look.

I have used paper artsy stencil and white paint to stencil this floral pattern on the sides of the box. The edges of the box have inked and distressed with archival brown ink and I have sealed it with Ultra matt varnish from Deco Art.

On the lid, I have this floral embellishment, a handmade flower using TH tattered florals die.

I also have used the alterations heart die cut which I have painted in black and dry brushed with white paint. The paper tassel too is handmade using old book page and some beads from the stash. The box is now complete.

This is what you see when the lid is opened….

A bunch of recipe cards tied together with a red synthetic bow! The idea was to create a vintage recipe box where I can store all my favorite recipes.

This project is a valentine gift to myself!

Until my next creative journey,

Happy crafting and recycling.

Cheers,

Rupa