Eggs in the nest

Good Morning everyone

Today its time for a new challenge over at Creative artist mixed media where we celebrate all things mixed media

Ive decided to go seasonal again and make a lovely little birds next.  I used these digital bird images for my nieces birthday and had several left over cut out so thats what triggered my idea to build them a little nest. 

8x8" Mdf shadow box frame.  Pictures below show how I built up the background and texture.  Once that was done I made a little nest out of orange and copper soft craft wire which I adhered into the box with glue gel.  I lined the nest with feathers and added a few around outside the nest and added my little eggs into place.  

I then added 2 of the larger birds - yes i know technically they are 2 different birds and wouldn't be a pair but hey this is craft land and artistic license😁

I created a hanging from the same wires used for the nest and 3 matching beads on each side - got to use my beads up some how and this seemed a good way and adds a bit of bling and interest.

You can see into the nest better here - Ive had these feathers for about 10yrs so good to use some!  You can also makes out the gold dora paint better at this angle 

The hanging loop I made with craft wire and beads

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and onto the step by step background

After making up the mdf box i added die cut feathers (great way to use up scraps of cardstock) and then added a little texture paste through a net effect stencil which I felt would give a little tree bark like feel.  Once dry cover in white gesso

I randomly added yellow, orange, red and turquoise acrylic paints

Then a wash of van dyke brown - yep it looks a mess now but let it pool around the texture....if its too heavy in any area just dab with some tissue.  Once the first wash was dry i added a bit more in areas to make them even darker

Dry brush on antique white, pale blue & lemon chalk paint 

The top coat was Cadence dora paints which have amazing shimmer, you could use gilding waxes instead.  I personally get on better with the dora paint as can dry brush it on very lightly - a little goes a very long way. Difficult to take photos off - but when the light hits it, it really comes to life.

To finish I coated it all in gloss mod podge to seal and protect.

How I made my little birds eggs.  Took little foam eggs from poundland and coated in white gesso and then pastel blue matte acrylic paint and then splattered on darker watered down acrylics to give the speckles and finished with a coat of matt mod podge.  I found it easier to handle them by sticking on a cocktail stick in some polystyrene....this does of course leave a little hole in the bottom of the eggs but easily hid when adhering them to my project 

Items Used 

Mixed Media birds clipart from Double Helix Digitals on etsy

Feather die - joy crafts

Woodware stencil

Texture paste

mini foam eggs - poundland

Cadence dora paint - gold, orange

Folkart Acrylic paints 

1mm soft craft wire

beads from stash

Do hop over to creative artiste mixed media to join in, anything goes as long as you mix your medias, so cards, atc's, tags, art journal pages are just as welcome as 3d makes like mine

Thank you all for stopping by once again.  Next week is the school Easter holidays so I shall be getting some crafting in with my 5 nieces, hopefully the weather stays fine too as they can get out and play. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

   

https://daranddiane.blogspot.com/2025/04/double-d-easter-challenge.html

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https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/04/spring-season-april-2025.html

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/04/april-2025-challenge.html

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https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2025/03/i-spy-with-my-little-eyethe-dawn-of.html - dawn of spring

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https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2025/04/challenge-97-anything-goes-featured.html

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https://craftyanimals.blogspot.com/2025/04/challenge-93.html

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Advent calendar

Good Morning everyone

This is a type heavy post so you may want a nice cup of tea, coffee, hot cocoa or even glass of mulled wine😁

Every year i refill advent calendars that i made for my 5 nieces and they love them and get so excited to see what each day contains - sometimes a sweet treat, sometimes something fun, or crafty or even sometimes something educational, this is their Christmas present from me and I think gives me as much pleasure to do as they get from opening them each day in December.

When I saw these mdf advent calendars at 'The works' I thought I would do one for my mum.  Well its been a real mission and issue after issue so Im quite glad to see the back of it to be honest but I know I will enjoy collecting little gifts throughout the year to refill it hopefully for many years to come for my mum. 

Overall size is:  17x17"    The inset scene area is: 12x12"

Now on arrival One side was not attached at the bottom so i glued it back together along with a couple of the drawers that the fronts had fallen off and I took all the drawers out assuming them were all the same size - on putting them back i soon found that wasn't the case and after alot of trial I found out which draw fit which slot and wrote the numbers on both to make easier another time!  A few of the drawers were really tight so i had to sand them, I would have liked to paint the whole drawer inside and out but due to being so tight i didn't want the mdf to swell too much so i have just decorated the front of each draw.

I covered the front of each draw with various snippets of Christmas papers - ideal for all the little scraps so they come from a variety of papers, i just made sure they were all in shades of red and greens.  I cut around the handle notch in the top of each drawer and then inked all the edges with white gesso and coated with glossy mod podge to seal and help keep it fresh and clean each year.  

The back removes from the middle inset area, so i added a fabulous paper that came in a 12x12 paper pad from the works and is a lovely snowy tree scene which i thought was ideal background for my snow scene.  I added a set of cheap fairy lights i had from poundland around the square - the micro ones would work better but I didn't have any so these had to do! 

 I gave it a coat of mod podge.  To the bottom of inset i added texture paste with foam balls and faux snow flakes included, coated with white gesso.  

From my stash collected over the years I added a large wire brush tree and some smaller brush trees.  To the big one i added these little fairy little buttons and some faux snow and glitter. 

I paint some wooden snowflakes with white gesso, added a little glitter glue and adhered them to the back panel.

I added a little white fence to the back, leaving a space so it looks like you are going into a park or similar.  I added a little black plastic lamppost which id added a little texture paste 'snow' and a little sledge - the kids have run off into the park to explore the winter wonderland😀

I added faux foliage, real medium and small pine cones and some red berries to frame the scene.  I used red beads for the berries in different finishes so they catch the lights. 

This shows where i wrote the numbers for each drawer on the bottom of the drawer and in the slots so that makes it easier to replace them in the future

Now another big issue was that after decorating the drawers and putting them back in, I really struggled to get them out with the handle notches and the fronts pulled clean off the drawers and realised that my mum who has bad arthritis in her fingers would really struggle so I decided to add little handles to make it much easier to pull them out so she can hopefully manage for many years to come.  

 I only decided this after i had die cut and added the numerals to the middle of each drawer so i punched 1" circles from more scraps of paper to cover up the numerals and add my handles. I then used smaller numeral dies to die cut the numbers again from white and add - these are alot smaller than the original numbers.  Where the numbers didn't stand out very clearly on the busier papers i went around them with a black find liner pen.

These little handles were an ebay find, they are on very long brads which were long enough for the 5mm mdf front, however for longevity and as some of the draws are so tight i also added a good blob of pinflair glue gel behind the metal piece on the front to really hold them in place.  Of course if you don't have a dust allergy and are able to use an electric sander you could easily sand all the drawers to make it so much easier.

Showing it all lit up.  I gave the whole advent a coat of white gesso and then white pearl dora paints which are really shimmery.  On the top of the advent i added a little texture paste and more of the dora paints for a snowy effect.  The whole unit was varnished so will keep it dust and dirt free over the years. 

This is how it looked before i decided it needed extra handles on the drawers.  Having now filled the little drawers with goodies I know i made the right decision as so much easier to get them in and out so my mum can use them with ease.  

I am glad I preserved with this - at one point i was ready to put it on the fire!!!  But its taken so much longer and been way more stressful than it should have been.   I certainly wouldn't buy another one of this style. 

Hopefully mum loves it!

Id love to enter the following:

  

https://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/2024/11/traditional-christmas.html

https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

 

https://peaceonearthchristmas.blogspot.com/2024/11/peace-on-earth-challenge-76.html

https://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com/2024/11/welcome-to-creative-artiste-challenge.html

https://lovethoseprettypapers.blogspot.com/2024/11/atg-using-pretty-patterned-paper.html

https://thehollyandivychallenge.blogspot.com/2024/11/challenge-173-anything-christmas-goes.html

 

Fungi Fun

Good Morning everyone

Today Im honoured to be guest designer over at creativeartistemixedmedia with fun project using these fab toadstool stamps from pink ink designs.

MDF stand approx. size 7x6"  See below for how i made the background.....I then stamped the image onto white card, watercoloured with inktense pencils and cut out,  then arranged them on the base. Chipboard quote which i cut in half as it was too long but i thought a lovely saying, to find a little joy and cherish the little things around us like the beauty and magic of nature really does lift the spirits.  

I edged the stand with gold paint & I gave it all a coat of mod podge to seal and protect. 

Sadly the photos don't do justice to the cadence dora paints which are super shimmery which i used to highlight the toadstools and background

The background, i first stencilled texture paste mushrooms towards the bottom and dabbed on some texture paste with the spatula to give an earth/ground like effect.  Covered the whole thing in black gesso and then splodged on some acrylic paint, keeping it darker towards the bottom so that Mr Fungi would stand out against a darker background. 

I then cut a foam mushroom in half, cutting the stalk on one to make it a bit shorter and then glued them to the base on the right and a whole mushroom to the left making sure i left enough room for the stamped image.  I then covered them in black gesso and built up the colours with acrylic paint and cadence dora paints so that they were the same colour as my stamped fungi.  I also dry brushed a top layer on the background with dora paints in gold, orange and a touch of fuchsia to highlight the mushrooms.

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I then decided to decorate the back as well with the 2nd pink ink fungi stamp i have, I went with a completely different colour scheme so the recipient can flip it around for totally different art when they fancy a change

I made the background in the same way, just using a flower border that came on the same stencil as the fungi border in used on the 1st one.   After playing around i felt Mr Fungi was a bit short and lost so found this big believe chipboard in my stash which was ideal for him to stand on and help him stand out.  2nd smaller chipboard reads 'today is full of possibilities'

Items Used:

Pink Ink Stamps 'shitake happens' & 'Oyster frills'

Paperartsy stencil 'PS179'

Cadence Dora paints

Pebeo acrylic paints

Texture paste

Black gesso

Derwent Inktense pencils

Chipboards 'art by marlene'

Please do hop over to creativeartistemixedmedia to see the other creative creations and join in - you can join in with cards as well - anything as long as you mix your medias

Thank you all for stopping by once again, i hope you all have a great weekend, Its scary that we are now into February - im not sure where January went too!   Hugs Emmax

Id love to enter this in the following:

https://do-allkreatives.blogspot.com/2024/02/86-alles-geht-opt-mystical-or-vintage.html

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https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/01/miucb-69-anything-goes-optional-mixed.html

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The gravedigger has risen...

Good Morning everyone

For some reason im on a roll with halloween this year.  This is a little MDF stand as a home decor item.

Approx Size: 7x5"    See below for how i did the background.  I then added cream acrylic for the base layer on the skeleton and arms and added touches of  blue, purple, green & orange to give more interest and depth and pick up on the colours used in the background - I used matt finish paints for this which really contrast to the shimmery background.  I added green & brown paint around the arms to make it look like they are pushing out of the ground.

I dry brushed cadence dora paints in silver & black onto the gravestone to give the effect of moonlight hitting it. 

 Tim Holtz chat stickers attached and glossy accents added to give them an enamel effect.  They read 'as if a tombstone should giggle'

'the dead hour of the night'

& 'The grave digger has risen' on the bottom plinth

 To finish a coat of mod podge to seal. 

You can see the colours better on this one, especially on the skeleton

This is how it started, both plastic skeletons & arms are from poundland,  i cut the end off the arms to make them different lengths and attached them at different angles .  The MDF base came from the works.

I then added texture paste through a hessian stencil and just dabbed some on in places to help give a worn weathered effect and added it around the arms to give the effect of them coming out of the soil.   I then covered it all in black gesso, once dry dabbed on some orange, green & purple acrylic paints to the background and then dry brushed over the top with more black gesso.  

Id love to enter this in the following:

https://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com/2023/10/welcome-to-creative-artiste-challenge-98.html

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https://inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/inspiration-station-october-2023.html - inspired by the skeletons, orange and touch of purple

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https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/10/october-anything-halloween.html

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http://cinspirations.blogspot.com/2023/10/october-challenge-autumn-or-halloween.html

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https://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/challenge-06.html

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https://halloweencraftsallyearround.blogspot.com/2023/09/sept-15-oct-14-challenge-8.html

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https://mostmagicaltimeoftheyear.blogspot.com/2023/10/challenge-13-most-magical-anything.html

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