Dollar Store Treasures

Hello all, today I thought I would show some items that I purchased at the Dollar Store and turned into art. One is in process and one is complete. This first one is one of those little puzzles for kids where you try and get all the little metal beads to fall into the little holes. Here is a picture of what it looked like to begin with (size is probablay 2 in across):

I found that I could remove the top clear part fairly easily. Once that was done I pulled out the cardboard background. I then painted the orange base with Krylon hammered metal spray paint. This took several coats. When that was complete I created a collage using vintage paper, an old family photo of my grandfather when he was a boy, and some rusty washers. I glued that in and replaced the top and this is what it looks like now: Love these kind of projects! Of course I bought out the inventory of these little toys so now I have enough to last for a long time. I thought they would look cool incorporated into the cover of a book someday but that project is still in my head.

The other project is the one in progress. I came across these canvases at a dollar each and couldn't pass them up. I figured I could gesso them and go from there. However, I could not get the gesso (white) to completely cover the LOUD colors. (black gesso may have done it, but I was on to another idea). Here is the canvas as it was:

So, I took pages from an old book that I got at Salvation Army store and ripped them up and glued them so that the entire surface was covered. Then I aged the canvas using acrylic paints, gesso and inks to get the following look:

A great background, but now I got to figure out where I want to go with it. Some projects come easy and some just take a little mulling over. Course with me I am probably on to 6 other projects before (if) I get back to this. Showing it here though should give me incentive to finish it and post what it looks like! Enjoy!