An Altered Patina Photo Frame

It's 2018! I hope everyone has a pleasant New Year. Over at my tiny country where I reside, it was raining over the countdown period; practically rained through the last day of 2017 to the first day of 2018. Quite a significant day to remember; raining through 2017 to 2018.  

From this year onwards, I'm coming back with more updates and video tutorials, continuing to share and inspire people alike within the community. And I hope I'm able to do this for as long as I could. Your earnest support and encouragement in the work I share do means a lot to me. Though I may be slow in certain ways and may not be able to respond, I do value each and every one of you who has shown your kind support and encouragement towards my work throughout these years. As I promise before, I'll make an effort to bring more exciting projects and tutorials that's easy to follow and learn. Pretty excited for this and I'm looking very forward for this come back. 

Without me saying further and get carried away with my excitement, I'm moving on to share this altered patina photo frame which I made it as a belated birthday gift for one of my sisters within the Church of Christ. 

Throughout the years, I've been buying and collecting quite a number of "alterable" items which I've this tendency to keep them first, then think later what to do. At the end of the day, I'll always ended up forgetting what I've bought and never get to use them. It's because of a patina paint set I had bought since early last year, I decided to whip something up. While digging into a huge box of "alterables" (this is where I tend to keep them, conveniently sealed beyond my physical eyes), I found this Ikea photo frame which I had already torn away the plastic packaging. So right on the spot, YES! YOU'LL BE THE ONE I'M GOING TO ALTER! Without much further thinking, it got to me that I should also do up a video tutorial for this. 

The Ikea Kvill photo frame

There's an abundant amount of patina effect tutorials available online which I believe there's isn't a standard way in obtaining the effect. Neither is there any straightforward way as well. Previously, I've created a "non-traditional" method in creating patina using mists and solvent ink during my term with Graphic 45 which I still enjoy doing it this way. Certainly, with ready-made paint set available commercially, it just makes creating the patina effect much easier. 

In most of my projects, I've this tendency to match the colours and design elements as closely as possible. Basically speaking, they need to be in harmony and collectively a theme. As I was planning this project out, I already had in mind what kind of effect I want, and I had this Unearth paper from Kaiser Kraft Antique Bazaar paper collection which I took the design as a reference to create the patina effect. 

Unearth, from Kaiser Craft Antique Bazaar collection

Besides owning a number of "alterables", I also have several dies I bought and never put into good use. Decided to use this opportunity to use my stash, I dug into my die collection library (once again) to search for suitable dies to use together with this frame. The rose die from Susan's Garden collection and Tim Holtz's tiny tattered florals dies finally came to their pilot use, after being kept for years (Oops!). Because it's patina, I do find using bronze/copper metallic papers for these flowers as one of the better options over regular cardstocks. Very unfortunately, the bronze metallic paper I used from Time Holtz's Kraft Core collection is no longer available. This does shows that I do hoard onto things long enough till they could go into retirement. Nevertheless, it's not really the end of the world, I manage to find alternatives which I've stated a few in the list of supplies below at the end of this post.

This beautiful Spellbinder's ornate die-cut frame is also making it's debut. Yeah! I know! A crafter can never have enough. Suddenly, I took noticed that I just have too much things that haven't been put into good use. Guess I'd need to make several craft debuts in the future.   

I got the son from my sister-in-Christ to quote some bible verses that will describe his mum well and got these verses printed out onto premium paper. The print-out was subsequently tea-dyed and distressed. I mounted the print-out onto a piece of chipboard before placing it on top of the die-cut frame. I trimmed the Unearth paper to size to fit the window and I used the patina design as the backing of the sentiment. If you take a closer look, the altered patina frame does matches up quite well with the designed paper. 

To perk up the look, a little golden fleur dresden will be just nice. And a final lettering completed the whole project.

Here is a full list of supplies I used for this project, with links to various places you can get them if you're interested:

• Ikea Kvill Ornate Photo Frame
• Finnabair Patina Effect Paste Set (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Finnabair Art Basic, Clear Gesso (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Tim Holtz Tiny Tattered Florals Thinlits (Scrapbook.com, Sizzix)
• Spellbinders 5x7 Reflective Moment Etched Die
• Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Brushed Corduroy (Blitsy, Scrapbook.com)
• Copper Metallic Papers (Cardstock Warehouse, CutCardStock)
• Daler Rowney System 3 Acrylic Paint (pale gold no. 708)
• Dusty Attic Teeny Tiny ABC Set
• Susan's Garden Rose Thinlits (retired)
• Kaiser Craft Antique Bazaar - Unearth (retired)
• Ranger Rose Gold Stickles Glitter Glue
• Golden Fleur Dresden