Vintage Spoon by Moira Sutton

Spoon – any size you like

Collage image printed on a laser printer

Gesso

Matte Medium

Lindys Stamp Gang Magicals – Salt Water Taffy, Merry Go Round Green, Raspberry Lemonade, Ramblin Rose Pink, Golden Sleigh Bells

Glazing Medium

Glossy Accents/Cosmic Shimmer Glue

Gloss Gel Medium

Prima Art Ingredients Micro Beads Pollen, Copper and Blush

Prima Art Ingredients Glass Beads Zinc

Stickles - Thistle, Tiara, Champagne, Tickled Pink

Tim Holtz Ideaology Crinkle Ribbon

Kaisercraft Rhinestones Hot Pink

Craft Consortium Always and Forever Resin Flowers - Peach

Today is Leap Day traditionally a time where women get to propose to their significant other and they can’t say no. This got me thinking about other love traditions and wooden love spoons and then of course to altered spoons.

I have a little passion for altering spoons, charity shops are not safe as I trawl through their spoons looking for nice shapes and patterns. I think I like them because they allow you to make a small decorative object which can be hung on a wall and to which you can if you want add a great deal of personalisation, if say using a photo or an image that has special meaning for someone. 

A quick word about images, if you are using a collage image or photo it must be printed on a laser printer partly for colour quality but mainly so the ink does not move around when it comes into contact with wet media. If you use a stamped image make sure it is stamped with  permanent ink like Archival or StazOn and coloured with a permanent media like Artist Pitt Pens, any water or dye based marker will run when wet. The image does not need to be cut to size, it can be attached then trimmed when dry. I have used a twinchie collage image from the internet which does not fully fill the spoon bowl as it is a table spoon but that is not a problem.

In an ideal world you prepare and colour the spoon before adding the image but being short on time I usually combine the two stages of preparation and image gluing so both can dry at the same time. Paint matte medium onto the back of the image and the bowl of the spoon and ease the image into the bowl. Now paint the upper surface of the spoon with a thin layer of gesso, this gives a “tooth” for paint to cling to later. When both are dry you can trim the image to fit the spoon and add a coat of Gloss Gel Medium on top of the image. 

Now for the fun part – decorating. I chose Lindys Magicals which matched the colours in my image and dipping my brush first in a drop of Glazing Medium (you could use Matte Medium) then into a pot of the Magicals and dabbing onto the spoon adding and layering more colour until I was happy. 

Next comes micro beads, gems, resin flowers and glitter adding until happy with the mix.  If I am making these for myself I tend to leave the backs plain as once hung they don’t show but you can also colour the back with the Glazing Medium and Magicals. Chose a Magicals colour for the ribbon, make a bend of the Magical with water and smoosh the ribbon in it to colour and dry with a heat gun. Finally tie the ribbon around the handle so it can hang from a wall. 

Moira