Altered Beermat Swap

This month's swap, which was kindly hosted by Louise at Zuzu's Petals Altered Art 'n' Stuff, was a little different in that rather than swap one-on-one with a fellow participant, we all took 5 beermats and altered them.  We then posted them to Louise who would randomly select 5 to send back to us, with book ring to make a little book from.  Having seen a little sneak peek on some of the other's blogs I'm really looking forward to receiving mine back!!  I actually made 6 as I kept one back for myself :o)

The Before ........

& the After ........

This really appealed to me, as I'm always picking up and fiddling with beermats! So I started of with some basic square shaped ones.  I painted both sides with some Eco-Green acrylic paint in Birch, and when dry I decided to have my first play with texture paste and masks.  Needless to say I just love the texture paste & will definitely be playing with it some more and soon!!

I knew I needed to do more with this side (which I decided would be the back) but I decided to leave it a while and focus on the front.

With the front I decided to use papers and chose some lovely ones from Prima Marketing.  I cut some strips from 12 x 12 sheets to the correct depth for the mats and then tore them down to leave a slightly tattered rough edge which I inked with distress stains and then stuck to the mats.  I stamped a collage stamp with a Penny Farthing onto one side using Stampin Up in Soft Suede.  I also made a little pocket from matching paper for a little stamped tag and ticket, and added a little 'Dream' cabochon as well.

Then back to the back!  I stamped a Tim Holtz sentiment and a little light-bulb onto some light yellow card-stock using Stampin Up - Chocolate Chip again tearing around the edges and staining with distress ink.  To finish them off, I added a little key and some washi-tape.

I have decided to also enter these into the following challenges:

Tando Creative Challenge Blog ~ Incorporate a Key ~ here http://www.tando-creative-challenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/may-challenge.html?m=1 ;

Rhedd's Creative Challenge ~ Altered Art Challenge ~ here http://rheddscreativespirit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/may-challenge.html ;

and Altered Eclectics ~ Anything Goes ~ here http://alteredeclectics.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/1st-of-may-omw.html ;




Thanks for reading :o)

Stefanie