Thursday, August 16, 2012

I Altered Something

Most of you know by now there's a bunch of things I don't "do". For example, I don't "do" Halloween, or Easter. I also struggle with froo-froo and girly. Something else I don't "do" is altered art. I mean, I live in a tiny condo ... where would it put it?!

So it may surprise you to learn that I  ... altered something. I DID! It's mostly because my stampy pal Libby made her DT debut over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog, and the current challenge is Alter It

So I did. This is what I made:

It's an E, if you couldn't tell. I bought it many years ago, with the intention of altering it and then moving on to another letter, and in the end I'd have the letters for "EMBELLISH" on my wall. Yeah, right.

So I had the letter, and I started playing. Here it is mostly in the raw:

I covered it with pretty paper and then painted the sides a hideous baby-puke green. I spent the next few layers of paint attempting to cover it all up, and I managed to paint over most of the paper. I know, I know, I could have added more, but I decided to focus on embellishments instead.

I knew I wanted one of my favorite sentiments front and center:


You know, Libby is responsible for me owning this sentiment, so this is just perfect for her debut, don't you agree? :D

I also decided this altering thing is second only to scrapbooking in that you get to use so much of your s-crap, and in this case it doesn't even matter if it's FAT and FLOOFY, so I went for it:

I dug out some fun yarn, wrapped it around a few times along with a piece of yellow & white twine (hey, I couldn't decide) and tied it into a bow. Done. Then I made a crumpled flower and put a huge brad (minus the legs) in the center with a ton of glossy accents.

I also used a big-a$$ button on the bottom right:

But the thing I wanted you to see here, besides the mostly lined up Liquid Pearls, are those three pearls with twine in them. Those, my friends, are the insanely good idea of my pal Marianne of RuffHaven. She said to tie some ribbon around the bottom of the E, or thread it through, so I could hang even more stuff from it. I poked holes through the bottom and up to where those pearls are, threaded the twine through with a long needle, and tied the twine through pearls from my SU Pretties kit both top and bottom:

Those pieces of twine can, in theory, eventually be tied to more baubles at a later date.

So, the E is now done. At this rate I will be 112 years old by the time I spell out EMBELLISH. So many letters. I need a new word, but it needs to have an E in it. I'll work on that.

Thanks for stopping by!

18 comments:

  1. Love all the floofy bits and pieces. And look at you altering stuff!! Watch out Tim Holtz! :D This is really pretty, Leslie.

    New word? E-A-T! :D

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  2. "Sweet" but decorated in your irreverent (i got that adjective from your blog :)) style

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  3. Oh I just love this so much!!! Especially because I know how outside of your comfort zone it is! I was wondering why it was an E of all letters, glad I know now, LOL! THANK YOU for playing along with the Stampotique Designer's Challenge during my debut week, yay!! And truly - love it! Go for the rest of the word!! ;-)

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  4. Very nice alteration, very nice, indeed. I would offer a suggestion for the word, but it's late and my brain has already gone to sleep.

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  5. Loved to read your message and your altered E is wonderful! Thanks for joining the Stampotique designer's challenge!

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  6. Oh I really like this, it's one of my favourite quotes, and I can just picture you painting over the baby puke green lol. Thanks so much for steping out of your comfort zone and joining us at Stampotique Designer's Challenge x

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  7. *ME*
    *EH*
    *BE*

    All good choices :)
    I am not an alter-er either, but this, this looks like fun. I LOVE the arrow pointing to the hilariousness, just in case somebody almost missed it. And baby puke green? I know this colour. It had to go.

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  8. Love how you write your blog lol... and a perfect choice of phrase lol

    great altering...would never have ever guessed it's not usually your thing.

    Thanks for joining in with us at SDC.

    Jo x

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  9. I have lots of projects like your letters. I would suggest making the word " HELP " and that would only be three more years. Have a great day!! Hugs n' Stuff, Lynne

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  10. This is great Leslie, I hope you do more altering!
    Thanks so much for sharing with us at Stampotique!

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  11. how cool is that! so purty and girly - love it!

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  12. Love your letter E. I know that feeling only to well of the millions of layers of paint to cover up an idea that did not go to plan. Thank you for uploading them for the Stampotique Challenge this week. Carol x

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  13. If this is a second copy of my comment, delete away. Before my phone stole my comment I said that I love those pearls that are doing double duty. And that maybe you could spell out the word EAT on your wall since you sometimes forget to keep food in the house. Hee hee.

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  14. Hmmmm...I am assuming that you only purchased the letters to spell EMBELLISH and not the entire alphabet. This sounds like a job for Lauren. All I can come up with is the place where the devil resides. You could have just done the LH for Leslie Hanna and donated the other letters...

    Don't take my advice. i still have a JH that I bought years ago and have yet to alter.

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  15. Adorable! Love this fun letter. Great job covering it will all the fun goodies!

    Thank you so much for playing along with us at Stampotique. Hope to see you again soon!

    Jenn
    DT Stampotique
    www.jaxbeanstalks.blogspot.com

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  16. Really enjoyed reading your blog - I too have spent hours covering a paint that really did not want to be covered!! Awesome piece with lots of lovely details. Thank you for joining in with us at Stampotique - hope to see you again for the next challenge. Polly

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  17. Your letter turned out fabulous! I love the little pearls you have adhered onto it. Thanks for joining us at Stampotique Designer's Challenge.

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  18. such a great project. Thanks for sharing your project with us at SDC

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I'd love to hear what you really think! :-)

PS: I've had to disable Anonymous comments, because the spammers were killing me. If you are unable to comment, please email me your comment and I'll get it posted for you. Sorry. (stoopid spammers)