Sweet Simple Things – altered piece of wood

Mottos or ‘words of wisdom’ are popular decor elements on our homes and we tend to use the ones that appeal to us most. But how about displaying them in a form that we like too? Rather going for a ready-made supermarket versions, why not release your creativity and make your own piece of decor in your chosen theme and with your chosen phrase?

Karen Crossed uses a mix of Tattered Angels, Canvas Corps and Architextures to personalise a blank piece of wood into a meaningful and ‘just the way she likes it’ piece for her home.

Loving the new 7Gypsies Architextures – and when I saw this planter – I just knew it needed some simple flowers and love! I also thought that one of my favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes would be a perfect fit! – explains her inspiration Karen.

Materials used:
7Gypsies Architextures Treasures: Concrete Urn
Tattered Angel High Impact Paint: Lime Green
Tattered Angel Glimmer Glaze: Satchel
Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist: Cork and Aged Brick
Canvas Corp Paper: Life Newsprint
Tissue Paper
Chalk Finish Paint Cream Color
Wooden Block
Stencil, Text Stamp
Archival Ink
Matte Medium
Burlap String
Scissors, paint brush

• Get your 7gypsies Architextures ready! Paint a little bit of matte chalk finish paint onto your urn/planter!
• Prepare your background: use ink, a stencil and font stamps on your wood piece. Wipe a light coat of chalk finish paint over the stenciling and stamp, wiping off as much as you can. The chalk paint just gives the wood a brighter finish. Take the High Impact Lime Green paint and go around the bottom edge and into the middle of the Architextures Planter.
• Paint High Impact Lime Green onto Canvas Corp newsprint paper. Use this paper to create your stems and skinny grass pieces. Then play with the grass and stem pieces to create the arrangement you want to be ‘planted.’ Type up the wording on your computer and print out the font onto tissue paper. I tape the tissue paper around a normal piece of printer paper and feed it through my printer. It might take a couple of tries to get this right for your printer, but stick with it because this is a fantastic way to add text to any project! Use matte medium to glue the paper down putting the glue onto the wood piece and then lay down the tissue paper. Very gently spread the paper down from the middle outward to avoid any air bubbles! If you mess up, scrape the wet paper off and try again!
• Use Tattered Angels Glimmer mist on tissue paper to make the flowers. Stamp a texture or text stamp on the tissue paper using archival ink. After the stamp has dried, spray Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist onto the tissue paper. After the Glimmer Mist is dry, cut the tissue paper into circles and twist the circles from the center to create flowers. Add a dab of glue or matte medium to the back of the swirled paper to help keep the shape.
• Take some of the green painted paper and make a couple of really thin strips. Coat the strips with matte medium and then swirl the paper into curly pieces. One the matte medium is dry, the paper will retain its shape. Make a couple of curly pieces and arrange them into your planter. Take a couple of burlap strings and turn them into curly pieces as well. Add in the other leaves and flowers to create your finished planter. Use glue or matte medium to attach all the pieces! Then you doodle a little with your favorite black and white pens and you are done!!

Visit Karen’s blog and Instagram for more creative ideas.

Happy crafting!

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