Altered Bangle {with Lynne Perrella stamps by Marie Hampson}

Hi everyone, Marie here. I'm thrilled to be bringing you some projects this year, I hope you enjoy them. I'm an art journaller (at the moment!) but also enjoy altering objects, which leads me nicely on to todays project, an altered bangle.

I started by digging out some old bangles that I no longer wear. They can be made from anything and have any pattern as it all gets covered up. I used a wider bangle so you can see more of the image from the rubber stamps.

I started off by covering all of the bangle with ripped up book pages, using Mod-Podge to stick them on. In retrospect I could have used anything, it didn't have to be book pages, as you really can't see the text on the finished bangle!

To create an even base layer and knock back the text  I painted it with a wash of watered down Snowflake.

I decided that some of the Lynne Perrella stamps would work well, so I went with the Lynne Perrella Collection 022.

I stamped all of the big images on tissue paper using a variety of inks but settled on black Archival Ink, making sure to stamp on the matte side of the tissue paper to give a crisper image.

Now to colour the images. I decided on a pink/purple colour palette and painted the images with the following - Orchid, Eggplant, Lilac, Vintage Lace and Old Gold. Painting on the reverse of the stamped images meant I didn't need to worry whether the paints I chose were translucent or not. Once the back was dry i turned the tissue over and added Old Gold to the front of the images, this made it really stand out. Saying all that, I didn't plan ahead properly (not unusual for me!) and painted the Lilac before the Eggplant, as I was painting on the reverse this meant you couldn't see the Eggplant, so I then had to add that to the front. 

PaperArtsy tip: when painting on the reverse of tissue paper, use your translucent colours first, then add the opaque colours. This way the translucent colours will sit in front of the opaques and both will show through. As Marie found out, adding an opaque first means that a following translucent colour cannot penetrate through the tissue. If you forget, then just like Marie you can easily remedy the situation by painting your translucent colour on the front of the tissue. 

Once the paint was dry I tore around all of the images and carefully stuck them on to the bangle with Multi Medium. You need to do this really carefully as it's very easy to tear the tissue paper when it's wet from the glue (I speak from experience, as you can see in the picture below there's a little white patch in her hair where I tore the tissue paper...).

I painted the inside of the bangle with Orchid, and edged the bangle with Old Gold.

A few coats of Gloss Glaze finished the bangle off and sealed it to protect it against knocks.

And that's it! I hope this inspires you to dig out some of your unworn jewellery and think about how you can alter them. Marie. 

A huge thank you to Marie from all at PaperArtsy HQ. What a fun and totally unique project, a great way to use up all our old jewellery. If, like me, you are an 80's girl; then you are bound to have old chunky bangles at the back of a drawer. This is an ideal way to customize your accessories to match with any outfit and a brilliant way to show off your favourite PaperArtsy stamps.

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday 2nd March 2014