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. 

Decorative Cart

I had the MDF candy trolley for a long time waiting for inspiration and then having collected lots of bottles decided that it would make a great place to show case them. Alternatively the cart is big enough for you to put lots of albums in to keep them safe or to use to put candy jars in at a celebration for people to help them selves from.

This piece is large! but not so complex to make. To cover it in one paper though would require you to have at least 3 of the same paper and if you are buying pads that seems a tad extravagant to me but never fear I have a solution.

I started by making the cart up leaving off the wheels and painted it in a pastel blue paint - the country green would work well as an alternative or even country rose avoiding areas that I knew I was going to cover with paper.

I chose to work with Rose Parfum 12 x 12 background papers and cut triangular pieces to size for the end panels and then distressed the edges with vintage photo distress oxide before adhering in place.

For the roof and bottom of the cart I simply measured the size of the arch shape and cut strips that size from three different papers from the paper pack. I distressed the edges with the same brown ink and then adhered them as show before sanding off the edges and then adding more of the brown ink to the curved edges. I then glued the wheels into place.#

 For more decorative details I took some extra light clay and cast 4 pieces of the long ornament B mould which was in stock when I made the piece and then additional pieces that I cut the flowers from only. You could do this with the decorative baroque mould using the central element for the wheels - alternatively you could decorate the top and base areas with long ornament C and use the large rose from the rose and bud mould for the wheel decorations. Once the clay was dry I painted it with same paint I had for the cart before dry brushing with white gesso.

I do hope that by showing how to decorate this large MDF piece I have taken the fear out of making such a large piece as broken down into steps its really not that complicated. I know I really enjoyed making it and then filling it with my altered bottles - that's a blog for later on this month so please watch out for it.