2015 #7 Flower Niche {by Wanda Hentges}

2015 Theme 7: Niches

Hi everyone!!!  Wanda Hentges ( http://artbywanda.blogspot.com/ ) joining you this evening with a post for the niches theme.  I've made my own niche from die cut coasters and attached it to the top of a 4" x 4" canvas.  *side note - I was at a flea market and got a huge pack of coasters (actually 2, one round and one square) for 50 cents.  Yes, they have writing on them but with Fresco Finish paints that is no problem at all!!  So follow along and I'll show you how I did it.

A quick note first.  The color on the picture above is very true on my screen to the actual project.  Some of the other pictures, it didn't seem to matter what I did I couldn't get the color correct -sigh-  So please keep that in mind as you go along. 

I used the Grunge Flower #1 die to cut the coasters and it cut them great, no problems.  I wanted to be able to stack them and have everything line up.  I didn't quite make that, maybe you could do better.  The insides all line up but the outside edges don't.  I could have trimmed the edges after they were all glued together but I just went with it.  I thought it looked fine for this project.  

My way of trying to have everything match was after cutting the first coaster and removing the die and flower, I laid it on the next coaster and used a pencil to draw around the inside.  I removed the first coaster and placed my die onto the one to be cut lining up the inside of the die and the pencil line and then cut it.

Here is the flower removed and you can see the die still in the coaster.

And here they are all cut and stacked.  I used 5 coasters and that created a niche about 1/4" of an inch deep.  You could use many more to create a much deeper niche.  

I painted the niche inside and out with Snowflake Paint to cover up any writing.  I used the Mini Cosmic Swirls TCW Stencil and Grunge Paste to add a design to the top of the niche and once dry, I sanded the paste just a bit to remove any rough spots, painted the inside of the niche with Banana and the top and sides with Tangerine Twist.

I hope you are not getting tired of seeing flowers on my projects!!!  Since this is a smaller project I needed the flowers to be smaller and out came the Shrink Plastic, white.  I sanded one side, painted the sanded side with Caribbean Sea just spreading it around with my finger, stamped the flower from ELB16 with Jet Black Archival Ink, gently dried them, cut the flowers out and used my heat tool to shrink them.

Notice how the paint is ruffled in places.  This is because I didn't use any water with the paint to keep it extra thin.  If the paint isn't thin enough, when the plastic shrinks pulling all the paint particles closer together you get ruffling.  I happen to like this sometimes.  You need to be careful because if it ruffles too much the paint separates from the shrink plastic.  I did get that in some places so what I did was take some Gel Medium on a toothpick, slid it carefully between the lifted paint and the shrink plastic, took the toothpick back out and pressed down on the paint so it was once again stuck to the plastic.

The canvas is painted with Banana on the top and Tangerine Twist on the sides.  On the top is stenciled the flowers from PS008 with Snowflake Paint.  I stamped the quote (ELB15) with Jet Black onto deli paper and dried it.  My plan all along was to have the quote centered in the niche. I set the niche onto the deli paper, drew around the outside with a pencil, and trimmed the deli paper about 1/16" inside the pencil line.  This was so the deli paper would not show outside the niche.  I glued the quote to the top of the canvas with Satin Glaze smoothing gently from the center out.  I did look like there were some wrinkles that didn't want to smooth out but once dry they were gone.

Before gluing the niche to the canvas I was trying to determine where I wanted the flowers and as I was moving things around I slid the niche over, set only one flower inside and at that point was wishing I had not already glued the deli paper to the canvas.  I fiddled with it some more and tried to find a layout I liked with the quote in the middle and I kept coming back to "not in the middle".  I actually thought about painting over it or starting over on another canvas but finally decided some washi tape would make everything better.  

Before gluing on the niche and flower I stamped the small grouping of 3 puffs (ELB15) onto the canvas with Snowflake Paint and ever so gently, using my finger, swiped Snowflake Paint over the texture on the top of the niche and on the sides of the niche.  The niche and the flower were attached to the canvas with Gel Medium and I also put Gel Medium under the washi tape to make sure it wouldn't lift.  

I really enjoyed making this and THANK YOU for following along. Except for cutting into a book, this was the first time I made my own niche and it was fun!!!  Some might say this is more like a frame than a niche but I think it could be either and as I said earlier, it could be made deeper.   I do hope you'll give this or any "nichey" idea a try and be sure to link up, I'd love to come take at look at your creations!   

Wanda

Blog - Art By Wanda

Twitter - @WandaHentges

Instagram - wandahentges

Facebook - Wanda Hentges

Ohhh Wanda, you always come up with the most amazing ideas! Not in a million years would I have thought to use a die and coasters to make a niche!! This is fabulous! Love the colours too, the orange just looks totally lush! ~Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #7: Niches If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Niches link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, April 26th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.