Love Shrine

This is how my "Love Shrine" started out.

The base is an old Lang Christmas card box.

(Whenever I come across a good strong box, 

I always tuck it away for a future project.)

I designed a fancy asymmetrical frame to go around it, built it

up with some air dry paper clay and cardboard 

designs, and then paper mached the whole thing. 

 Once it thoroughly dried (about 2 days),
I primed it with Zinzer Bullseye 123.

I used assorted acrylic and dimensional paints to create

a primitive design, which I sealed with a gloss medium. 

It's embellished with some cold porcelain clay roses

and rhinestones. 

It's rustic, simple, bright and cheery.

I may need to add some glitter modge podge

to the frame to give it even more pizazz. 

Either way, I "LOVE" it!

Te Amo Niche Shrine

This project was an experiment

with a variety of mediums.

Paper Mache

Cold Porcelain Clay

Air Dry Paper Clay

Niche Design and Creation

Nothing was purchased for this project. 

Lately I've been trying to create things

 from materials I have on hand. 

I've always loved niche/shrine/diorama art pieces and

decided to give one a try myself. 

This one took me about 4 to 5 days to complete.

I ruined a perfectly good sauce pan cooking the cold porcelain

clay, because I mixed it in the pot instead of a separate

bowl first and then I cooked it too long. 

It made me a little sad throwing that pot away

that I've had for 28 years! Next time

I'm buying a cheap pot from the thrift store and using that. 

That's what I get for being a rebel and not paying 

attention to the suggestions on the youtube videos I watched. 

I found the easiest way to color the cold porcelain 

clay is with markers. Just poke them into the clay and knead away.

Sharpies are fine and won't permanently stain your hands. 

The flowers, leaves, candles, and pink hearts are

all made from the cold porcelain clay.

The big red heart at the top and the center cross are

made from the paper clay. 

I used acrylic paints as well as dimensional fabric paint 

and sharpie markers on the design.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and have started

a couple more. 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Happy creating.

Terri