Altered Photo Frame-- Step-by-step process

Hi Friends.

A few days back I got an order from a friend who wished to gift a hand decorated photo frame to her husband on his birthday. I jumped up at the idea of decorating the frame with some beautiful quilled flowers. But, my excitement turned into anxiety the moment she stated her requirements of "No Quilling decoration" and "No Flowers please". Instead, she requested on mixed media alteration! You see, quilling is something I'm confident about, whereas I've very limited experience with mixed media. Nevertheless, after checking out some much-needed inspiration from the internet and pondering over it, I thought why not take up this challenge that let's see how it goes !

So, here's how I altered it:-

1. I gave a coating of homemade gesso over the frame, after placing a napkin over the photo area to protect it from gesso smearing over it.

2. After the layer dried, I doodled some random dots using different colours of gelatos , followed by blending them with a finger.

3. Stamped some music notes randomly using archival black ink.
4. From the Lindy's stamp gang magical micas set-- Drink me silly, mixed the pigment powders in water in separate mini misters and used them to spray over the base.
5. Applied some Ranger's Texture paste through Kaisercraft's brick wall stencil with the help of a discarded credit card.

6. After letting it dry, sponged some memento rhubarb stalk ink over the edges of the textured wall to give it a more realistic look.
7. Since flowers were not to be used, assembled some feathers, burlap hearts, felt hearts, doily , stamped couple image and 'together' tag from the prima junkyard findings to complete the decoration.

Packed and ready to be shipped

So, how's it? I know there's a room for improvement here, and I'm going to try my hand at more  mixed media projects .

Thanks for visiting me today. Have a great day!:)