Fullness of Life

For today's make I started with a 12" square canvas and then layered my pieces on top of it - starting with a solid base is essential when you know you are going to be adding lots of dimensional pieces as it means you have a solid piece for displaying.

I started by making my focal piece using a mdf kit - window with shutters. Before assembling the kit I covered the back piece with some white gesso and once that had dried added the lady from the Steampunk 01 rice paper using decoupage glue (watered down magic glue will work too). As this image is currently out of stock you could use Alcie or the Mad Hatter from Alice 01  rice paper, the lady from simply beautiful rice paper or the couple under the flower arch from wedding 01 rice papers making this a very versatile style of project. Next I lended the white edges of the rice paper into the base by colour mixing my own shade of paint as this means the paper looks continuous rather than just plonked on.

The frame and shuters were then glued together before painting with brown paint and dry brushing with more white gesso. 

The back piece was then adhered to the rest of the window frame leaving the shutters open.

I chose two papers from the 12 x 12 Enchanted World papers deliberately selecting the side with no themed imagery on them as I wanted them to be back ground pieces. The first one I scuffed the edges with a pair of scissors and added  some brown distress ink before adhereing directly onto my canvas base. The second piece I cut to11" square and again scuffed and inked the edges . I deliberatelt added sine dustressed slits and curled the edges back on each side of this layer too for added interest.

I then autdiionely lots of my pieces so I knew approximately what pieces needed to be glued in place first. I chose to work predominatly with the floral images fussy cut from Alice Flowers 12 x 12 sheet but also added some elements from the Enchanted world extras pack.

If you compare the photo ablove with the finished piece you will see that I allowed the project to evolve as I built up the details. Having positioned and glued most of my pieces in place I then tucked in piece of chipboard taken from the Park Leaves set and also added in some faux vintage pink hydrangea flowers. To add a little more interest to the background around my imagery I used brown archival ink and paritally stamped images from a text background stamp. To make this easier for myself I warmed the stamp up in a microwave so I could take the rubber piece off the wooden block it comes on. 

Before adding my shabby ribbon 059 bow I dry brushed the p[apers and floral elements with white gesso and added lots of splatters with some of the brown paint I had used to paint the frame.

A Little Wheel Barrow

This week I have a little floral deocation to share with you - for me this is a little project but it still has lots of details so I hope you like it.

The base for the project is a plywood wheelbarrow as the base to hold a pretty floral arrangement. As usual I started by laying out the pieces so I knew how it would be constructed.

I glued the pieces for the bucket of the wheel barrow together and then let them dry.

For the wheel and handle pieces I started by gluing the two wheel pieces together and then when they had dried painted all of the plywood with a copper metallic paint - the antique gold creamy acrylic by Pentart  would also work really well with the autumnal shades of the rice paper that I used for decoration. The wheel base was then adhered in place.

Next I added a crackle medium to the "bucket" - shhhhhhhh don't tell anyone but it will appear at the retreat in September so hopefully will be added to stock however you can use any crackle that works in a sandwich between two layers of paint. Once it had dried I then painted on some white acrylic paint. Alternatively you could use a thin layer of the Stamperia white crackle paste in which case there is no need to add a layer of white paint over the top.

Next I selected images from the flowers rice paper (there are lots of options if you want different flowers but you will need a paper that has small images on it). I tore out the images I wanted and then glued them in place over the body of the wheel barrow using decoupage glue making sure I covered the images on the outside with the glue too so they were sealed in place. Watered down pva glue will work if you don't have a specialist rice paper glue. Once the glue was dry I added some more of my metallic paint around the edges of the bucket.

To fill the wheel barrow I then added some floral foam deliberately cutting it so it was proud of the top of the wheelbarrow. Then I added some moss using hot glue.

To fill the wheelbarrow I then added a selection of flowers in colours that I felt complimented the rice paper I had used - rose and yellow crimped hydrangeas - pushing the clusters they come as into the floral foam (you may need to trim the stalk a little and also use a pokey tool to make a hole in the foam for the stalk to go into.

 Next I added a few yellow cherry blossoms. 

Finally I tucked in some greenery - leaf 127, leaf 091 and leaf 105/ Adding until I was hapy with my overall composition. 

Magic Forest

For this blog project I have worked with the Winter Forest Book Nook kit. When ever I make these up I go into google translate and convert the engraved Polish words to English so I know what each piece is for. 

In addition there is a step by step video tutorial which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-NOQPqKgJMhvb4d1nsZHvw/videos 

which it is advised you watch first. Of course I used magic glue to adhere everything in place.

Through out the project I used Magic Forest 12 x 12 papers and also a pack of the ephemera die cuts - I really like the later as they are not as chunky as traditional greyboard die cuts but are thicker and there fore more substantial than just fussy cutting images out from the papers.

When ever I make this type of project I, I have a dry run of construction and then take it apart and decorate as I go. To help with this process I took a series of photographs:

Dry run

Paper added to one side and back panel

The back panel has holes ot pass strings of lights through - I used three for this set and fed them through the bottom holes and left them unattatched.but coming out though the gap in the floor

Then I placed the floor and steps in place having covered the pieces with paper.

Next I took the lights and ran one set up each of the backs of the lanterns, bunching some togehter to form a ball to light the lantern and then took the light string back down the lantern before then running the rest of the string across to the opposite side then along the floor and then to the back of the book nook/ I used one set for each of the lanterns and then the thrid set I used to add more lights around the back.

Before going further I then added the elements that are on the right hand panel as you look at it - simply colouring the mdf trees and lanterns with distress inks. At this stage I also added the lady ephemera piece to the front of one of the lamps and other elements to further enhance the piece. I added moss to the floor for further details and to cover the string of the lights. Having go most of the pieces in place I then added paper to the remaining wall and adhered that in place leaving the top open to add the remaining trees and decorative elements. 

I decorated the inside of the top piece before adhereing in place and then decorated the outside top.

I addde paper and ephemera to the side panels.

The back of the nook has a space for the batteries - I papered the back and then used hook and loop strips to attatch my battery packs inplace meaning that I can remove then to change the batteries as needed. Then I added the remaining panel covered with paper and ephemera.

Though this may not use masses of products it is quite a lengthy project to make and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed creating it. I think it would also look lovely dressed as a winter forest too.

Lit up I think it is so worth putting the three sets of lights in as it really does look quite ethereal and as though you have stumbled across a house hidden in the forest and protected by its griffins. 

A Vintage Book Box

For my make this week I have chosen to work with the wide mdf book box and three different rice papers -simply beautiful 01 simply beautiful 02  and simply beautiful 03,

To start with I laid out the pieces of the mdf kit before gluing them inplace and then letting them dry completely before starting to decorate.

Once dried I painted the entire piece with a blue grey paint and left it to dry before rubbing over with a candle and overpainting with white paint leaving the inside of the box element the original colour. Once the second layer of paint had dried I then sanded back the box to give a distressed feel. There are lots of paints to choose from on the website but for this effect to work it is important that you choose contrasting colours. My preference is a dark underlayer and a paler top layer especially when adding rice papers as they blend into a pale top layer more easily with out the need for lots of paint blending to disquise the edges. The inside of the box was dry brushed with white to co-ordinate the whole look

Having finsihed the painting I tore elements from the rice papers before gluing them in place as shown in the images- my preference is to use a dedicated rice paper glue but watered down pva will work. This book box has a very large spine area which I felt looked bare and so I added several lengths of shabby ribbon from my stash wrapping the entire length twice round the spine and simply knotting them together. You could use the ones that come it the seastories kit with ribbon and add a brown tone from the selection in store. Finally I added three handmade foamiran flowers to the knot to complete the piece.