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:

https://diytozts.blogspot.com/2026/06/wyzwanie-96-recykling-upcykling.html#more

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https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2026/06/june-challenge-and-july-anniversary-news.html - tree and leaf dies used

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https://hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com/2026/06/challenge-202606-june-2026-anything.html - anything but a card

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https://tolanythingbutacard.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-outlawz-anything-but-card-june.html

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https://pinspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com/2026/06/pinspirational-challenge-338-june-blue.html - blues and greens

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https://do-allkreatives.blogspot.com/2026/06/114-verpackung-box.html - Ive created my project from a packaging box 

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Cherry Blossom

Good Morning everyone

Today Im sharing a little gift I made for a friend, its a wooden book shaped box which I decided to turn into a kind of shadow box which can be displayed stood up and open.  I used a beautiful paper set I got back in the black friday sales with a spring theme. I used a mix of the 12x12 and 6x6 papers and found the images work well together for creating my little scenes.  It is unusual for me not to add anything else other than the chat stickers but was nice and relaxing when I was feeling a bit rough over Christmas time to not think too much about matching things and just use what was in the sets.

I forgot to measure the box before I posted it, but it isn't very big, if i remember correctly its about 5x3" and 1" deep

I painted the box with matt acrylic paints in shades to match the papers, so ive picked out the blue, pink and soft yellow, I painted the outside blue, the inside pink and the sides yellow.  I then cut one of the papers to fit the front and decoupaged with matt mod podge.  I then cut out the little girl catching a cherry blossom, some branches and little bird.  I tore a couple of pieces of paper to add as some ground for her to stand on and a couple of smaller flowers and sealed it all with more mod podge.

The chit chat stickers are by aall&create on the front here I added 'admire divine blossom' as thought that worked - there is something magical about the first blossoms of spring and how they lift our spirits. 

This shows it stood up open on display, it nicely stands up by itself.  I lightly added pink cadence dora paint to the edges for a little shimmer in the light 

On the inside left I added one of the papers and cut out elements of this cherry blossom wreath which I added the little cross legged girl inside and surrounded with different sized flowers.  A little birdie sits on top of the wreath.  I added a little touch of diamond stickles glitter glue to the flower centres for just a little sparkle 

Chat stickers say 'Enjoy serenity, experience enlightenment'

Just spending quiet time in the garden or anywhere with nature, sit and listen and its very calming and healing.  A kind of meditation against the hassle of life. 

I adhered the paper girl on swing to study acetate and cut around her, thus giving her stability and strength, i then added score lines at the top of the 'ropes' to adhere to the top of the box so that she actually moves and get swing forward and back.  I then added some cherry blossoms in front of the ropes to hide the workings - these I also added on acetate so nice and strong and wont damage as the swing moves. 

Below the swinging girl we have  a blossom branch with a little birds nest and bird.  I added glossy accents to the eggs.

Chat stickers read 'Achieve happiness'

Once you have done your meditation in the garden and breathed in the scent of the blossom and listened to the birds singing its is happiness and of course who then doesn't love a go on a swing😁  These bags of chat words from aall&create contain hundreds of words so I was going boggle eyed looking for some to suit that weren't too gushy! 

and the back of the box, just the same paper as the front.  Everything was coated in mod podge to varnish and protect it as it will be handled a bit. 

Items Used:

13arts paper 'Pastel Spring' 6x6 & 12x12 

Aall&create chat stickers

Wooden box

Folk art matt paint 

Cadence Dora paint - fuchsia 

Mod podge

acetate

Ranger Stickles 'diamond'

Id love to enter the following:

https://tolanythingbutacard.blogspot.com/ - anything goes option

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https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2026/01/ellibelles-garden-party-no-11-anything.html

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https://lovethoseprettypapers.blogspot.com/2026/01/atg-using-pretty-patterned-paper.html

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https://girlzcreativefunartofscrap.blogspot.com/2026/01/challenge-18.html

 

Pumpkin Season - Creative Artiste Oct

Good Morning everyone

Im still waiting for my eye op so vertigo and extreme nausea still plaguing me, I  can only spend about 5mins looking at a screen so this post has taken weeks to type up so I hope it all makes sense - luckily blogger allows us to plan and schedule these posts well in advance if we need to.

Its Autumn and Its October so for my make for creative artiste this month ive made a pumpkin scene and had great fun making it too.

Over at Creative Artiste its always anything goes as long as you use mixed medias, at least 3 Different types

This is very much an assemblage make for me as no stamping or cutting out involved and all the leaves were die cut previously from my inky scraps.  So I just had fun with texture paste, crackle paste, acrylic and shimmer paints and bringing it all together in a little scene.....which doesn't happen over night😊

Approx Size: 10x8"  Wooden pumpkin from the works a few years ago.  I also decided I wanted to use some of the tim holtz paper dolls I have had for years and keeping in a safe place.  I made this for a friend who I know loves all things Tim Holtz so the ideal opportunity to use the paper dolls.

We've got an end of season pumpkin picking scene.  See below for photos of how i made the background.  Once I had finished the background and adding shimmer and shine to the pumpkins I added some of the dolls to look like they are sat on the giant pumpkins and leant up against them.  

I then added lots of die cut autumn leaves which I have a bag full off as I always die cut any left over inked pieces into leaves as they are always useful. So the leaves were inked up with various brushos, distress inks, oxides, mica sprays, pixie powders etc....  I arranged them to look like they are blowing around in the breeze and falling from the trees.

Close up off the pumpkin pile and dolls

Love this little doggy, he has a little pumpkin beside him and is just wondering if he will chase some leaves.....I added a little plastic spider on one pumpkin...it is a little spider but compared to the size of the chap I guess its huge! lol   To take off the plastic shiny finish i covered it with black gesso 

I painted the edge of the wooden pumpkin with black and then edged the front with gold and orange dora paint 

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now onto how I did the background

I first covered the wooden pumpkin with acrylic paints, then adhered the polystyrene pumpkins and painted them with gesso and added some texture paste here and there to the background and ground.  The large pumpkins I cut in half as they would have been too deep - this also makes them go further too - the polystyrene is fairly easy to cut with a craft knife. 

I then built up the colour of the pumpkins and background using acrylic paints, slowly building up the layers until i was happy, this is quite a slow process for me and comes together over days.  It needed to be dark and in shadow amongst the pumpkins to help give the effect of a deep pile of them.  Also dry brushing on several layers to the background to build up the colour.  To help the pumpkin stack to stand out the main background pumpkin is a much darker orange almost red and the smaller ones more yellowy orange.

I dried brushed on a top layer of cadence dora paint in orange and gold so the pumpkins really shimmer in the light - although hard to capture in photos but it is sparkly.  I very lightly added touches of the dora paint to the main mdf pumpkin so it catches the light in places - less is more as the cadence dora paint is very shimmery

I wanted the main pumpkin to have a gnarly tough skin effect like you get on some pumpkins that have battled the weather and garden wildlife so they sometimes get a tough rough skin.  I added texture paste and some crackle paste in areas.

Items Used:

Mdt pumpkin from 'the works'

Polystrene pumpkins from ebay

Tim Holtz ideology pumpkins

Tim Holtz paper dolls

Spellbinders leaf dies

Cadence dora paint 'gold & orange'

Acrylic paints

Ranger Crackle paste

Texture paste

My dad has grown a bumper crop of pumpkins this year with the dry weather so the girls are delighted and i guess we will be living on soup all winter😁

Do hop over to Creative Artiste to see what the rest of the DT has created and to join in with your creative mixed media makes - we love seeing how you mix those medias.

Wishing you all have a very happy October. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/10/fall-season-october-2025.html

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

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https://pinspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/10/pinspirational-challenge-330-october.html

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Blue frog ATC trio - Sept Creative Artiste

Good Morning everyone

September has started so time for a new challenge over at Creative Artiste where the theme is anything goes MIXED MEDIA - we need at least 3 different mediums

I decided for a change to make a trio of ATC's.  I used this fab frog stamp set from aall&create and what I had left on my desk.  So we have a blue tree frog as I had scraps of this pale blue dotty paper.  I had a piece of inked background with shades of green, blue and pink which made my bases.

Each atc is 3.5x2.5" in size

I started by cutting my inked background to size, I then inked through a circle stencil with pearl white dora paint and through a dotty stencil with glossy glaze.  I added some text stamping in grey and a dotty mark stamp with green.

I stamped the lily pads onto lemon inked card which was on my desk but a good contrast to the blue.  I stamped the dragonflies and waterlily onto white card and coloured with alcohol markers in pink - this picks up on the touches of pink in the background. 

Stamped the words onto more of the dotty paper, cut out and arranged  to finish.  See below for each individual atc

You can make out the pearl stenciling better here.  I used a yellow paint pen to add colour to the frogs spots.

Photos don't show it well, but the bottom left corner you can just make out the glossy glaze dots.  I inked over them with stormy sky distress ink and the glaze resists it, also inked all the edges with the stormy sky.

For this happy chappy - by that expression he must be feeling croak😆, I torn a scrap of white card, inked blue and added to the bottom to 'ground' him & added a few doodles with a fine liner to give a water like effect.  I had a die cut piece of foliage left over which i added behind him.  

Heres the background before adding the extras, you can just make out in the light the shimmer of the white dora paint on the bigger stencilled circles and the glossy glaze with the small dotty stencil...also some of the ink sprayed background was pearlised so when the light hits them they shimmer and dance with the different finshes

Items Used:

Aall&create stamps #521 'Be hoppy'

Cosmic shimmer airless misters - green, pink & pearl teal

Cosmic shimmer glossy glaze

Cadence Dora paint 'white'

Distress Inks - stormy sky, picked raspberry, wild honey, lemonade

Posca paint pen - yellow

Stencils - circles & dotty

Patterned paper scraps

Do hop over to Creative Artiste to see what the rest of the DT created and to join in with your multiple different mediums projects

Thank you for stopping by.  Due to the vertigo and nausea Im not getting much serious crafting done so thankfully I was very well prepared with my DT projects, still hoping to get my 'new' eyes soon! So I apologise for not keeping up with comments on your projects but about 5mins of screen time is all i can manage before having to lie down again.  Big hugs to you all Emmax

Id love to enter the following

https://tag-alongandatc.blogspot.com/2025/09/september-things-with-wings.html