Recycled Project from Throwback Thursday

If you remember last Thursday I posted a pic of one of my “mistake” art pieces, but over on the StencilGirl blog, I showcased how I took apart that art and made it into something else.  If you missed it there, you can see it here today.  The initial piece was a mishmash of distress inks misted with water. I kind of liked it until I added the words with white paint.  Big mistake for me, but I clipped it on my clipboard of odd pieces and left it there until I was challenged with a project for StencilGirl.

The good, the bad and the ugly…

I didn’t quite know what I was going to do or where I was going to go with it but I didn’t overthink it like I usually do. I jumped right in and cut circles from the pieces of paper and applied MaryBeth Shaw’s Quilt #1 stencil from StencilGirl. I painted on the design. Some were centered, others were not. After watercoloring my background paper, I decided it might be cool to trace and cut the design right out of the substrate. I loved how the stencil could be purposed a different way. Then I thought how neat it might look to have embroidery threads weaving behind the cut pieces. Yep, liked that.  At one point, gesso was applied like a paste, creating a pattern on the background in white. I then started layering and adhering the pieces onto the substrate, some with foam dots, others with adhesive, followed by doodling with black and white pens.

 

And the black thread…it just seemed to complete the whole piece. Thinking of making it my signature piece from now on.

Somehow, it all came together. I don’t think anyone would have ever known this was made from mistakes and best yet, I didn’t let anything go to waste. Have you ever turned your mistakes into a work of art? I challenge you to give it a shot. The road to discovery can lead to places you never dreamed you could go.

XO,

Debi