Altered CD Wall Hanging

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog.  I am so glad you stopped by today because I have a really fun project to share with you.  If you are like me, you have a stockpile of blank or old CDs just waiting to be altered.  If you are intimidated by large canvases or art boards, then this is a good place to start because your "canvas" (CD) is small and easy to finish in a day or two, depending on drying time for your mediums used.  So let's get started.

Supplies Used:



Sin City Stamps:  Art Journaling with Terri Sproul,  A Wing Above the Rest, Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2



Blank or used CD

Map Collage print paper (Paper Studio)

Rebel Teal Distressed print paper (Glitz Design)

Kraft-Core Nostalgic Collection card stock (Tim Holtz)

White Gesso

Twinkling H₂0's (Mustard Green, Cranberry, Snap Dragon, Irish Mist)

Black India Ink pad (Stewart Superior)

VersaMark ink pad (Tsukineko)

Gold detail embossing powder

Distress Paint (Wild Honey, Broken China, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo)

Distress Ink (Black Soot, Vintage Photo)

Workable Fixatif (Krylon)

Grunge Paste (PaperArtsy)

8" black nickel fine cable chain (Hobby Lobby)

7/8" circle punch

Fast Grab Tacky Glue (Aleene's)

Embellishments (Tim Holtz Idea-ology)



Directions:



Trim a piece of map collage print paper to fit over the CD.

Adhere paper to CD using gel medium or your favorite wet glue.  Trim around CD, and use a piece of sandpaper or nail file to sand edges smooth.

Apply a thin coat of gesso over paper, leaving some of the image showing through.

Stamp focal image (A Wing Above the Rest) onto CD using Black India Ink or any archival, waterproof ink.  You do not want your stamped images to bleed.

To make a mask, stamp the same image onto a piece of notebook or plain paper, cut out, and apply a removable glue to the back.  (I used Zig 2-way glue for this.  If you let the glue dry first, it becomes removable.)  Use the mask to cover the image and protect it from further stamping.  This also allows it to remain in the foreground.  All images stamped over the mask will appear to be behind this image.

Begin stamping images on the CD and over the masked image.  I used the honeycomb ( Art Journaling with Terri Sproul), the bricks and flourishes (Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2) and STEAM (A Wing Above the Rest), in Black India Ink.

Spread a bit of grunge paste or heavy gel medium along the edges and stamp into the wet paste with the honeycomb image.  Immediately wash off your stamp under running water and use a soft brush to remove all of the medium.  Remove the mask and color the focal image with Twinkling H₂0's.

Spray CD with a workable fixative and allow to dry to protect what you have done so far.  The Twinkling H₂0's are water-based, and my next step will make them run.



Replace the mask over the focal image, but cut away the wire dress form beneath the bodice so that your background colors will show through this section.

Dab wild honey distress paint over the honeycomb images, spritz with water and allow to drip a bit.  Lightly dab some paint off and heat set.  These paints react with water until you heat set, then they become permanent.

Dab broken china and fired brick over the remaining portions of the CD and spritz with water.

Lightly dab some of the paint again and heat set.  Dab vintage photo distress paint around the edges of the CD and heat set.  Gently remove your mask.  I will tell you that I found the Zig 2-way glue became more stubborn to remove after heat-setting the paints.  In this picture, you can see where it removed some of my image, but there are a few ways to fix this.  Yay, isn't that good to know?

One way to fix this is to re-paint the wing with the Twinkling H₂0's.  I decided to repaint the whole image to bring it back to life.  I want my winged dress form to really stand out.

If you don't like this (because it did remove some of the stamped detail in the wing) you can always stamp the wings onto another piece of paper, cut them out, color them, and glue them over the original wings.  You see, no sweat.  There is always a way to fix things, and sometimes you like the "fix" better than the original.



I decided to leave it the way it is because I like the distressing in the wing, and to make it pop even more, I used a technique I learned from Terri Sproul in her art journaling videos about using black and white around an image to bring it to the forefront.  To do this, I replaced my mask, including the bottom  part I previously cut off, and lightly dabbed black soot distress ink around the dress form and wings.  Start the inked sponge on top of the mask and pull outwards away from the masked image.  I also used my finger to feather some of the ink out.

Now, that looks better, but I think it needs a bit of refining.

So, if you have a charcoal pencil, you can run the point along the outline and feather the charcoal more.  I decided to use my black Pitt pen and feather it with my fingers before it dried.

If you want to bring back some light on one side, you can then run a white Pitt pen along one side and feather it before it dries.  Determine where your "light source" is coming from and color only on that side.

Now, these colors are a bit bright for me, so I sponged vintage photo distress ink over the whole CD, which brought out the dimensional honeycomb.  I really like this look better.



Now let's embellish the CD.  It first needs a hanger, so punch two holes in the top of the CD.  A crop-a-dile works really well for this.  Set eyelets if you like.  I think it finishes it off.

At this point, I decided to cover the back of my CD with the rebel teal distressed print paper, just to finish it off.  That way, I could punch my hanger holes before inserting the chain, and my CD will be flat when I do it.  Once I add my dimensional embellishments, it won't be so easy.

Thread the fine cable chain through the holes, front to back, and close ends with a small jump ring.

Stamped winged clock (A Wing Above the Rest) onto a scrap of aqua and tan Kraft-Core card stock using Versamark ink and gold detail embossing powder.

Fussy cut the entire aqua image, and only the tan pocket watch image.  Save those tan wings for another project.

Adhere tan pocket watch over aqua image, using foam dots for added dimension.

Use a quick grab tacky glue to adhere winged clock to hanging chain.

Punch a 7/8" hole from the same tan card stock and cover the glue and hanger with the circle.

Dab tarnished brass distress ink and broken china distress paint over the number "3", let dry.  Glue embellishments to the front, as shown.

I hope I have inspired you to dig out those old CDs and make some wonderful art with them.  You can make a wall hanging, as I did, or mini book covers for a mini album, or even an entire book using them.  There is no limit, except your imagination.



As always, thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you will take some time to visit the blog to see more creative works from the fab design team.  Also, be sure to check out the newest stamp releases this month, as well as the special promotion going on now over at the  Sin City Stamps store.  They have the most wonderful stamp images that I know you are going to love, and coupons to boot.  All you need to do is visit the coupon page and scratch off the blocks to reveal a random discount code.

Have a wonderful, creative weekend, and go do some SCS shopping!!

Barbara