Guest Designer - Cathy Frailey

Please say hello and give a warm welcome to Cathy Frailey who is our Guest Designer for the 'With This Ring' challenge. Cathy was the top pick for our 'Sound of Music' challenge and can be found on Facebook.  Edit:  Cathy just started a blog called It's Oddly Appealing so pop over an give her some love and become a follower so you can see all her new creations.

Hello everyone ~ I'm really excited to be a guest designer for Frilly & Funkie this month & was really honored to win the Sound of Music challenge! I love anything grungy, vintage, shabby, steampunk, and out of the ordinary. I like experimenting & sometimes my mistakes turn out to be something amazing! I'm by no means a professional - I just putter in my messy craft room & create what makes me happy!

Since the challenge this month is With This Ring, I decided to do a decor piece that's a little shabby/grungy in the spirit of love.

I had this box frame/lid in my stash (Approx 6x6 - I think it had another box inside it at one time - I keep everything!) and cut a piece of cardboard to fit the open square in the back snuggly (no gluing). I then painted it with a few coats of white gesso, not really worrying about brush strokes or perfect coverage.

I had some white Mulberry paper so I tore it into various sizes and laid it in different areas on top of the wet gesso. I wanted to see what kind of texture would come out of it in the end when I started dribbling paint. I then used a Prima damask stencil with white crackle paste in various places - again, no perfection here!

Then it was time for the messy stuff! I dribbled some Dylusions black spray & then spritzed with water to let it run, turning it various directions, dabbing some off here & there, leaving some areas white. Using a baby wipe to dab here & there gave it a gray cast with some purple undertones - it melded the gesso together with the black. So I went with it!

I wanted to use a heart somewhere and didn't have one - so I cut one out of cardboard, covered it with crackle paste, and doused it in fine glitter. I also dribbled on some glass glitter & distressed it when dry. Then it was time to layer my embellishments & tie it all together!

I used some cheesecloth, a resin flourish, some black & white damask tissue paper, and some pearls on wire. I printed out a vintage couple & attached it to the heart. I also had a roll of amazing metal trim (from Etsy) that I cut to fit as an interesting vertical border. A love quote was printed & glued onto a piece of cardboard to give it height. A splash of silver micro beads & a highlight of silver rub 'n buff around the edges & my motley creation was complete!

* * *

Thank you to Cathy for her fabulous inspiration. Cathy doesn't have a blog so she has provided all the details for her project here but do pop over to her Facebook page where you will see some of her other creations.

We hope you will share your wedding themed project with us and you have lots of time because the 'With This Ring' challenge runs through 11:55 pm EST on July 4th and can be found here.