Treasure Box - My First Attempt At Grunge and Steampunk

As you all know, my style of art is across the board as it changes by my mood. It can change by what supplies I have on hand or by an inspiration piece of another artist.

The one thing that remains constant is my desire to try different techniques and to learn the diversity of how different mediums can be used.

I love treasure boxes and have "a few." So, what better project than to try to alter one using new style and techniques and see what I can come up with?

I received a box of candy for Christmas from a neighbor and knew that I wanted to save it for a future project. Yay, glad I did as it was perfect for this project.

I painted on two coats of gesso to mask the slickness of the original coating.

Using the Heidi Swap Flower Doily Stencil and modeling paste, I randomly covered sections of the box to give it some texture. 

To begin adding color, I sprayed various colors of  Dylusions and Perfect Pearls. For just a minute, I wanted to paint gesso all over it as the colors seemed so bright and out of my element, but I decided that this is part of the learning process and trudged on.

I noticed that the parts of the box that were not textured with the modeling paste (the corners in particular) seemed 'lacking', for a better word, and I wasn't sure how to get those spaces to feel coherent with the rest of the box.

As I was wiping up the ink overspray, I realized that the paper towel I was using was obviously the same colors as my box. 

And, because in Mixed Media anything goes, I began tearing off pieces of the paper towel and adhering them to those empty spaces with some gel medium. I LOVED IT!

Now that my box was covered in texture, I had to decide how to decorate the lid.

I gathered items from my stash, my kitchen junk drawer, and my Frosted Designs "Rustic Beauty" kit. I arranged, rearranged and changed them to see what was appealing to my eye.

After finally deciding which elements I would use, I painted all the hardware type pieces with gesso, sprayed them with inks and rubbed them with metallic paints. I used a piece of the number plate paper that came in the Frosted Designs "Rustic Beauty" kit. I also decided to use an old paper bag flower that I made a while ago (top left flower) in lieu of one of the kit's paper flowers. I added pearl beads as centers to some of the flowers and blue bling, of course :)

I was so excited to see my first grungy, steampunky piece completed. Woo Hoo, I still haven't gessoed over it. 

Actually, I am very proud of it. I want to try more of these, so I will search my house for more boxes... a girl on a mission... haha!