The Artist's Crown

I am Queen of my craft room! Aren't you? Lately, I've had this idea in my head to create a crown to hang in my creative space. Initially, I thought of a chandelier but it wasn't practical with my set-up. (I'd be banging my head into that thing all the time.) So instead, I opted for a half-crown that can be mounted to the wall.

Here she is...

Right now, she's propped up on a vase but I will be adding hardware to the back and hanging her on the wall in my room. To give you an idea of the size, she's about the size of a traditional round birthday cake. (around 10 inches).

The base of the crown started with a paper mache hat box lid. (I will be teaching this project to my All Things Tim Club in May, so I will be using the box as well as the lid.)

And since it's a half crown, I can supply four students a base form from one hat box.

To create a backing in which to attach hardware later, I hot glued a thick chipboard panel to the back. I added masking tape to stabilize it the panel to the base, then added decorative paper to cover the tape and add more strength.

I added paper to the bottom as well. This is important, since my crown will be hanging up high on the wall and people will see the underside. (This paper is from the Vintage Shabby stash. I still have SO much of that lovely stuff.)

Onto a full sheet of grungepaper, I glued a 6 x 12 piece of script paper from the French Industrial stash. To be efficient, I cut strips from it at 3 x 6 inches, then ran each through the Vagabond with two of the Sized Arches Movers & Shapers dies. It will take a sheet and a half per student for their crown.

Even though my photo shows five of the smaller size, I actually cut six of each of the two sizes. On the larger ones, I rubbed Antique Bronze Distress Stain and the smaller ones with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain. All the back sides got Brushed Pewter Distress Stain as well.

Around the edges of all arches I dabbed Brushed Pewter Distress Paint for a more opaque silver edging.

From pink Kraft Core card stock I used the Iron Fence On the Edge die to cut three strips then sanded them lightly and sprayed them with Perfect Pearls Pearl Spray.

With hot glue I adhered the large arches to the base first with 1/8 inch of space between (I started with the front center one and worked my way back. I don't have a photo of the side view, but I had to cut the last large arch in half and use both halves to fill the remaining space) then I added the smaller arches. 

Next are the iron fence strips, overlapping to create one long wrap-around.

Below the iron fence strip, I hot glued the flower trim which I had sprayed with Perfect Pearls Patina spray beforehand and let dry. From the Stacked Artful Words strip die, I cut the word Artist from more of the Vintage Shabby paper and pounced some Iced Spruce ink on it. I cut another Artist with black for added stability and to serve as a drop shadow. 

Ooh-la-la. I love this Fleur de Lis die and matching Texture Fade. First I stamped the die-cut shape from white card stock, stamped a pretty design with Iced Spruce, then put it in the texture fade plate and ran it through the Vagabond to emboss it. I inked some more Iced Spruce over the raised areas and then a final inking with Vintage Photo. While the inks were still a bit wet, I quickly spritzed the piece with Perfect Pearls Pearl Spray and watched it do its magic. The stamping blurred a bit and the inking blended beautifully. Wish you could see this in person, it's so pretty.

Now you can see the cut off edge on the side of the crown in this photo. I created three fleur de lis's and cut one in half to put on both ends. I added some pearl from the Baubles using hot glue. A bit tedious, but they seem to be holding just fine.

A few adhesive pearls adorn the smaller arches.

I used every single one of the Baubles in the package added to some chain from the craft store to the bottom of the crown. I used a sharp piercing tool to create two small holes through the base and craft wire to connect to the chains. 

Now it's time to hang it on the wall....

just as soon as I get back from Ranger University!

If you're following my on Facebook, I'll be sharing my experience during the weekend there and will blog about it when I return.

Thanks, and have a great day.