"Dream" Collage Shadowbox

Kim Elowe loves finding interesting objects to use in her shadowboxes at flea markets or the thrift store.

Materials and Tools:

Ikea 5x7 BAS frame
BeDazzler small star studs
Tombow permanent adhesive tape
ThermOWeb clear adhesive dots
E6000 glue
Plaid-Apple Barrel paint: apple pink, black
McCloskey porcelain crackle glaze
McCloskey porcelain asphaltum aging glaze
Anita's water clean-up polyurethane
Creatacolor Aquamonolith water-soluble colored pencils
Winsor & Newton watercolors
Paper Bliss cream letter tiles
Dover clip art

Steps:

1. Sand any rough spots on wooden shadowbox frame. Tape off or remove glass from frame.

2. Prime frame and let dry. Paint frame and let dry.

3. Apply porcelain crackle glaze and let dry. Apply aging glaze over crackle finish; wipe off, revealing antiqued finish, and let dry. Apply several coats of varnish, drying between coats.

4. Line inside of box with old correspondence using decoupage medium and let dry. Seal using additional coats of decoupage medium.

5. Create sky background to fit back of frame and let dry. Affix to back of frame using archival tape.

6. Create moon and butterfly wings. You can sketch with colored pencils and have color copies made on card stock or cut images from image books, old greeting cards, and the like.

7. Affix the moon on a small wooden disk to slightly raise it off of the background and let dry. Glue moon and metal 3-D metal star studs to background and let dry.

8. Retrieve clip art from computer disk and print on card stock, or glue printed pages to card stock. Cut out.

9. Affix clipart bunny and butterfly wings to photo. Secure photo to short dowel with glue and let dry.

10. Decide on placement of letter tiles to be placed within frame. Glue in place and let dry. Glue dried photo with dowel attached to background and let dry.

11. Join backing of frame, with artwork attached, to the frame. Secure.