Autumn Shadow box

Good Morning everyone

First week into November - how scary is that! So with the 1st Friday in this month we have a new challenge over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media where the theme is always anything goes as long as you mix your medias - at least 3 different types please.

Ive made an autumnal shadow box for this month which actually started out life as a pet food box - its amazing what can be done with different mediums to transform something...

Approx size 6x8" See below for how I made & decorated the box.  Once that was done I got creating my little woodland scene.  I die cut a tree die multiple times from brown cardstock and adhered together to make my own chipboard - this making it more study.  I dabbed acrylic paint to the leaves in yellow, orange and red and dry brushed brown onto the trunks to break up the solid brown of the card & sealed with mod podge.  I then adhered these to the back of the box, one flat and 2 with glue gel to give a bit of depth.

I took wooden leaves and painted with acrylic paints and adhered to the back and sides of the box.  I then arranged some toadstools which I had printed and cut out way back in the spring just waiting to be used, they were printed onto 300gsm card but to give them extra stability I added card strips to the back of the stalks which also gave me more area to add glue to, to adhere them into place.

I add the same acrylic paints used for the background to scraps of cardstock and once dry die cut into lots of leaves which I then arranged around the box to make it look like they are falling from the trees onto the forest floor.

I die cut the word Autumn from gold glitter card and brown card, adhering the brown letters as a drop shadow and then added to the top back of the box.  I also die cut the gold glitter into a few leaves and scattered around to help tie it altogether. 

Everything was coated in mod podge to seal and protect.....the best way of dusting these projects is with a very soft large make up brush which is delicate enough to brush off any dust but not damage the rest...I was once asked that😁....Ive found the best way to avoid dusting in general is having craft projects lying around everywhere otherwise the cats are well trained in dusting with their tails😂😂😂

This shows the true colours better.  For the background tree I cut 1 up so that I could make it seem taller and a slightly different shape so that not all 3 trees were uniform, same with the one on the left I trimmed some off the left hand side so it tucked up in the corner more - the offcuts i glued into place behind other branches to help give the effect of different trees.

Technically these toadstools are too big for real life but this is craft land and I wanted them to be seen, not hidden under leaves

The toadstools - to give them more stability and area for me to add glue to, I glued strips of card together and added to the back of the stalks, adding a couple of coats of mod podge also helped give them some extra strength.

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and onto the box

I first cut the cat food box to size - this is a 40 pouch box so I got 2 out of it by cutting down the middle - this then left a side without a wall so I used the lid of the box for that, cut to size and held in place with paper tape before I covered the whole box in brown paper which helps strengthen the box, hold the side panel in place and cover all joins.  I actually used brown paper often used in parcel packaging now - its ideal for this.  Tear it into small pieces and decoupage into place using watered down pva - so my whole shadow box is made from rubbish basically😁   

Once dry cover with gesso which covers the brown paper nicely and gives a good base to work on.  You can easily use tissue paper to cover it but as i save all the brown paper from packaging its ideal for this and good recycling. 

Here in the UK Sheba & Whiskers boxes are the best as they are much studier than Gourmet & Felix - yes my feline bunch are spoilt & old so fussy and all eat something different so I get to try all the boxes out😺 The other boxes I cut up into panels which make great bases for the childrens art creations - more study than normal card but alot cheaper than canvas board etc... 

I then added a layer of teal, brown & navy acrylic paint.  Then once dry stippled on a layer of yellow, orange, maroon and brown paints - the same colours I used for my leaves. I then knocked the colour back with a layer of vintage white dry brushed over.  This helped my images to stand out but also meant the colours in the background give the effect of the autumnal forest behind my scene.  It does seem weird to add colour to then cover over it but its only a light top layer and the original colours do all still show through in the finished result and is more effective than a solid colour.

On the outside of the box I added texture paste through a bamboo stencil and freestyle using my spatula.  Once dry I covered with the same paints used on the inside.  Teal and Navy first and then the browns, yellows catching the raised areas and once completely dry I dry brushed on gold paint to highlight.

You can make out the gold a bit more here, just on the raised areas.  All coated in glossy mod podge and metals corners added on all the corners to help protect and neaten up.  To think this was just a humble cardboard box.....I amaze myself sometimes😀 

I of course have the 2nd box to decorate too.

Items Used:

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

Papermania wooden leaves

Memory box tree die (very old)

Spellbinders leaf dies (very old)

Memory box alpha dies 'Parker'

Bamboo stencil

Texture paste - white

Plaid folkart matt acrylic paints

Pebeo acrylic paints

Decoart Gold acrylic 'splendid gold'

Brass effect metal corners

Crafters companion gold glitter card

Hop over to Creative Artiste to see what the rest of the DT & Guest DT have created and to join in.  The more you mix your mediums and get creative the better.

I hope you all have a good month. Hugs Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

  

The four seasons

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https://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.com/2025/10/10825-anything-fall.html

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free_02053675983.html

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https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/11/november-challenge-2025.html - dies used 3 different leaf die sets, tree die, alphabet dies

 

Snowdrops

Good Morning everyone

Today Im honoured to say that I have been invited to join the very talented design team at Creative Artiste mixed media so for one project a month I will be playing with alot more mixed media which is always fun.  

So I thought to kick start I would make something very seasonal.  After Christmas when most of the garden is slumbering in sleep and lots of earth and brown on show these dainty little snowdrops pop up to brighten our day with their lovely white and green flowers.  For those of you who are new to my blog you will find that usefully my projects are full of colour so this is very muted for me but I wanted to go with a more realistic look and let the snowdrops be the star.

Approx size:  5x7" (13x18cm)    I started with a piece of stiff card cut from a cat food box.  See the last photo for how i did the background. 

Onto the base layer i added a layer of handmade paper which i tore into a rough oval shape - this i felt gave the effect of a soft frost.  I then tore a piece of brown packing paper - this i used so that the white of my snowdrops would stand out - all the torn edges giving a rustic natural feel.  I then added a piece of hessian ribbon. 

I die cut lots of snowdrops from white card and used green alcohol markers to colour the stems and add a hint of green to the flower head.  I added a little bit of 'crystal' stickles glitter glue to the little piece on the flower heads to add just a little frosty shimmer

Computer printed word 'beautiful', matted onto kraft card, glossy accents added to finish.

To hang i added white eyelets to the top and threaded with green cotton cord with 2 green glass beads.

I added the snowdrops with pinflair glue gel to give dimension.  To make them more realistic I cut the heads off some and glued back on the opposite way so that they aren't all facing the same way.  These snowdrop dies - the little bits in the middle fall out so that they have little gaps in them which i didn't want for this project so after die cutting them i added a little tape to the back to hold those pieces in place. 

The background/ base layer

I tore off some of the top layer to reveal the corrugations, added texture paste through a stencil.  Once paste was dry i added brusho powders in Olive and light brown which have tones of green, brown and purple in them so give a lovely dirt like colour.  I sprinkled on a little copper pixie powder, the mica giving a light shimmer. I used this criss cross effect stencil as i felt it had the effect of lots of dead stems and twigs in the garden like you get over winter. 

I then dry brushed on a thin layer of white chalk paint to soften it and give a frost like effect and edged the panel in white.

Items Used:

Snowdrop die by Alexandra Renke

Brusho Powders 'olive & light brown'

Cosmic shimmer pixie powder 'copper'

Green alcohol markers

Texture paste

Plaid 'folkart' matte paint 'antique white'

Stencil

Handmade paper, packaging paper & Hessian ribbon

Ranger stickles glitter glue 'crystal'

Ranger glossy accents

White eyelets, 2 green beads & cotton cord.

Do hop over to creative artiste mixed media to see what the rest of the DT have created and to join in.  You don't need to make a big mixed media project, it can just be a card or atc as long as you mix your medias.

Thank you for stopping by and i hope you all have a good weekend. Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

 

https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/winter-season-february-2025.html

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https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-2025-challenge.html

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https://craftingacutabove.blogspot.com/2025/02/february-anything-goes.html - the snowdrops are dies

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free_02003369360.html

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https://daisychainchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/challenge-93-layer-it-up.html

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Creative Artiste...

Good Morning everyone, welcome to October.

I was honoured to be offered a guest designer spot for Creative artiste Mixed Media for this month.  As it was for october my first thought was maybe a halloween mixed media project but then i saw this bone shaped mdf and thought it would be ideal for those Crazy dog stamps from Tim Holtz

Mdf bone size 12x7"....  after doing the background (see last photo below) I stamped the tim holtz crazy dogs and a couple of zinksi art dogs, coloured them with inktense pencils and cut out.  I covered them all with mod podge to give them a bit of protection.  

From an empty pet food box i die cut my alpha's with a sizzix bigz die, covered with black paint and then glossy accents to give them an enamelled look.  I die cut some circles from card, painted with yellow paint, drew on lines to make them look more like tennis balls and again covered with glossy accents. 

 I then got arranging it all - this took longer than you might think getting the dogs in an order that i felt worked best and actually i didnt glue them down for a couple days to make sure i was happy with this finished arrangement!  I added a few Tim Holtz ideology bones, a couple of them i cut in half as you wouldn't see the whole bone anyway and made them go further. 

A metal tag added above the be happy to finish which reads 'live in the moment' which i think alot of dogs do.

After a few days i felt it needed something to balance the heavy black letters so i stencilled some black paw prints around the edge to look like one of the dogs had been off for a wonder following a scent trail as they do😁.....and it made all the difference.

Of course i had to add glossy accents to the dogs eyes and noses too

and onto my background

 I stencilled texture paste through a paw print & diamond stencils and once dry covered it all with black gesso.  I then added patches of crackle paste and once all was dry i built it up by dry brushing on white and cream acrylic paints adding a touch of diamond to the top layer that twinkles in the light.  I found an old tim holtz grungeboard heart in my stash which i again added texture paste paw prints to, covered in red paint and then again dry brushed on the white and cream acrylic.  I then added that to the bone and edged the bone with black paint.  This bone came with a stand but i wanted to hang it so just cut off the tabs and sanded back and punched some holes in the top with my crop o'dile.

Items Used:

MDF Bone  'dog bone on stand' from Craftshapes.co.uk

Stencils - paw print, diamond

Golden texture paste

Crackle paste

Tim Holtz crazy dog stamps

Paperartsy Zinkski art dog stamps

Derwent inktense pencils

Tim Holtz ideaology - bones, metal tag, grungeboard shapes

Sizzix Tim Holtz word play bigz die

Various acrylic paints

Thank you all for stopping by and to everyone at creative artiste mixed media.blogspot for welcoming me to join them this month.  I hope you all have a good weekend.  Hugs Emmaxx

 

Go Green - Upcycling

Good Morning everyone.

Its time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday,

 the theme this fortnight is:

GO GREEN

Upcycling, recycling, reuse

So i had a dig around and came up with used toothpaste tubes, cat food tins, cat food boxes and plastic packaging and had fun making this wall hanging.  I decided it would be good to go with a nature theme as we can all do our own little bit to help nature and the planet by recycling and reducing our use of plastics and packaging. 

8x8 mountboard panel for the base.  I covered the base with a couple of patterned papers.  I then added a panel of corrugated cardboard with some of the front torn off to reveal the corrugation and texture and added to the base. 

After preparing my recycled items - see below for full details  I arranged them to my liking, 

I added a feather to my birds wing and a couple of others amid my die cut greenery, as well as the foiled foliage i added die cut ferns.

A close up, i added twine in the background for more texture, buttons to my plastic packaging flowers.  Chit Chat stickers used for the title 

'Cherish Everyday  -  Beautiful World'

This shows my used items, 2 toothpaste tubes, ive turned one over so that you can see that although plastic tubes they are foil lined - they are 2 different brands aquafresh & oral B so i think most modern plastic toothpaste tubes are lined, just cut off the top and bottom and cut along one side, wash and they are ready to be used, the cat food tin is foil, plastic packing - some crafty dies came in that and then the cardboard cat food box, has a lovely brown tone to the inside.

This shows them die cut, the leaf swirls are toothpaste tube, the leaf from the foil tin, plastic flowers and the brown bird from the cat food box.  I used my old Sizzix bigz dies to cut them all.

The plastic package flowers, toothpaste & foil all take alcohol inks beautifully to colour them, you can get a lovely marble like effect which adds more interest to them instead of flat colour.  The cat food tin foil is brilliant as you can mold it into shape. 

Items Used:

Sizzix Bigz dies - Flower Layers #5, birds, vine w/leaves, fern

Tattered lace fern dies

Tim Holtz chit chat stickers

Tim Holtz alcohol inks - various colours

I hope i have inspired you to maybe look at some of that 'rubbish' we all produce and think of another way to use it.  Please do hop over and see what the rest of the team has come up with and also what all those entering come up with over the fortnight.  I think this is going to be a good challenge, lets all do a little for our beautiful world.  

Make My Monday

Thank you as always for stopping by and all your comments last week. I hope you all enjoy your bank holiday Monday and the sun shines. Emma