Trenouths Crafty Creations: Into the forest....

Friday, 5 June 2026

Into the forest....

Good Morning everyone

The first Friday in June so time for a new challenge at Creative Artiste where the theme is always anything goes

MIXED MEDIA

Using at least 3 different mediums

I have another one of my shadow boxes made from a cat food box....of which i have a never ending supply! This time we are in the woods at dusk surrounded by trees watching the hedgehogs come out to play😁

Box size approx 20x16cm /6x8" and 3" deep

See below for step by step.

Once all the trees were in place I added reindeer moss to the floor, added a couple of trees to either side with a little chipboard birdie, 3 small printed toadstools and my 2 hedgehogs. Ive had these chipboard hedgehogs for at least 10 years so about time i used them. I first covered them in brown paint in 2 tones, darker at the bottom and lighter at the top, to the top where the spikes are i very lightly dry brushed on diamond cadence dora paint - when the light hits it it really dances.

I stamped the quote onto a sage green cardstock die cut into an oval, covered with mod podge and adhered into place with glue gel covering the join in the trees. I added more die cut foliage around and behind the oval to frame it and added another little wooden bird.

The foliage was die cut from cardstock i had painted with green cadence dora paint so it really shimmers when the light hits it. Ive had these tiny wooden birds for years and still using them - it was a big pack. I left them natural as they match the tones of the reindeer moss

The trees ive added half way at the sides were 5 layers of die cuts so nice and sturdy and stand up well.

I love how the light emanates from deep in the woods...who knows what magic is going on in there. My nan always called this time of night 'The gloaming' which always conjured up a more magical feel than 'dusk', a bit like twilight that always sounds more mystical than dusk! lol For those who don't know gloaming is Scottish...My nan had long lost her Scottish accent accept when she used her many Scottish words and they always came out in a Scottish accent

and a close up of the hedgehogs, this is as detailed as i dared to get with them, i think if i had attempted putting in eyes & ears it would have ruined them

and onto the box base

After the box was coated in black gesso i then coated in a layer of dark blue and teal paint as i wanted a more dusk/nighttime look. Then i added lime green and yellow to the back of the box as i wanted the feel of a luminous light coming from deep within the forest - i brought this slightly onto the sides of the box too. Once dry i dry brushed on midnight blue and black to help build depth, you can see from the right hand photo that the yellow is still visible even through this dark paint but it makes it part of the scene rather than just yellow on top.

(colour is correct on the left one - right one was photographed at night before i moved onto next step)

I covered a sheet of scrap card in green cadence dora paints using light and dark greens, ones dry i die cut into foliage and adhered to the back of the box, this really shimmers in the light and also then has the effect of the light in the forest catching the leaves.

I die cut lots of birch trees from brown 300gsm cardstock and adhered 3 layers together to give me more of a chipboard. I then dry brushed on brown acrylics to give more realistic bark then just the plain brown cardstock. I have 2 very old memory box birch dies - 1 is one truck and the 2nd is several trunks joined together, this joint one i used for the background, i used one and a half across and then as its not tall enough, cut up another one for the top, knowing that i would be hiding the joins....if you click on the photo it will bring it up bigger for you to see closer if you wish

The outside of the box, i added texture paste through stencils and in other areas just dabbed on with my pallet knife. Over dry i covered in the same midnight blue, teal & liquorice black paint used on the inside and once dry, dry brushed on the same lime green and yellow paints. I finished the corners with metal corner protectors.

The start of my shadow boxes. I cut up cat food boxes and covered in brown paper saved from packaging. I cut to 3" deep but you could have a really deep shadow box and leave the full depth of the original box

You can see other cat food box make overs here

autumn shadow box snowy cabin

Items Used:

Inkylicious 'forest quote' stamp

Toadstool digitals 'Mixed Media Toadstools' from Double Helix Digitals on Etsy

Memory box dies - 'Tall birch' & 'Massa leaf'

Impression Obsession birch tree die

Kiasercraft wood birds

Texture stencils

Texture paste

Cadence dora paints

Folk art acrylic paints

Hop over to Creative Artiste to join in with your mixed media makes and see what the rest of the DT has come up with this month. Any project welcome as long as you use 3 or more mediums.

Wishing you all a happy month of June. Emmax

Id love to enter the following: