Altered Paintbrush Swap

I participated in my first craft swap this month! This was a one on one swap and the project was an altered paintbrush. We had three themes to choose from: Vintage, Shabby Chic, and Halloween. My style is somewhere between Vintage and Shabby Chic, but I asked my partner to create something Shabby. My partner requested something Vintage so off to work I went!

We had to use an ordinary chip brush, 3"-4". After much searching, I finally found a 4" brush. Who knew they were so hard to find around here! Sheesh!

My partner gave me free reign as far as color choice. Starting out, I had no idea what colors to use but after a while, the color palette emerged: greens, browns, and yellows!

The brush went from this:

To this! 

I used some laces, beads, and flowers from my stash 

 as well as some cherry blossoms purchased at MB Treasurista. 

I dyed the flowers with various Adirondack Color Washes.

The pretty lady is an image found online. The "Beautiful" sentiment

was stamped on some vintage looking paper. 

It's hard to tell, but I used a floral mask (also from MB Treasurista) 

and modeling paste to give the handle some texture. 

Backside of the brush. I embossed the handle, then covered it

with gold embossing powder, again, to give it some texture. 

Lastly, I die cut a tag and included my information. 

This was a super fun swap and I look forward to many more! Check out all the very talented folks at Creating the Crafty Life. Blessings!

Millie