Christmas in July,
Birds and Bugs
By Sue Smyth
It is always a good idea to get ahead of the Christmas rush, so
what better way than to make a Christmas in July project.
If you are like me you have bucket full of Christmas photos.
Some good some not so good, this little mini pocket
album is just the ticket, it holds 100 photos, so
has swallowed up a lot of my excess Chrissy shots.
I have covered the surface of the book with
scrunched tissue paper, adhered with
gel medium. Over the top I have added
imaginarium chipboard corners.
Then spray with turquoise glimmer style mist, for extra
glimmer I have applied iridescent medium with
a fan brush to give a transparent glaze.
I love to team red with turquoise, so a poinsettia flower
surrounded by natural seed pods, gives a great
woodsy christmas feel.
To frost them dab a little white gesso over top.
I have embossed the chipboard window with aged
gold embossing powder and then
spritzed with White linen Dylusions
to give a kind of snow look.
I have made a simple scroll and stamped with a greeting to
finish the front.
Well enough of Christmas lol. Back to bugs.
These cute little post it note books
are just begging to be altered.
And make a great small gift.
They are the perfect size for the plastic bugs.
Again it is so easy to apply tissue paper scrunched
up over the cover with gel medium. Add
your chipboard corners.
Paint with black gesso and when dry
paint with your favourite colour
of Dylusions paint.
Then rub over inka gold, turquoise,purple cobalt and gold to finish.
Once the cover is altered, layer up more
chipboard, trinkets and bugs.
Here I have gold foiled the chipboard
with the Go press and foil machine.
The bug is painted with black gesso
then 2 contrasting colours of inka gold
is applied with your finger tip.
Dry off then add a final layer of gold inka to
blend the bottom colours together.
Last post I shared this little bird that I made
for Jane, so she could display it at the June Expo
here in Brisbane. Jane
had lots of faux birds and during the
expo asked me to make up a sample with
the white feathered swan!!!
So here is what I came up with, remember
I had about 2 hours and limited materials
as that night I was staying in town.
So I went shopping and scrounged a piece of
chicken wire.
And came up with a gothic swan, my inspiration
was the movie the Black Swan, I have not seen it
but the title gave me the idea of a swan like a ballerina.
I have twisted a vine and added turquoise beads to the
chicken wire "nest"
The crown is a trinket that has been cut down and adhered
to the head.
To alter the swan, I have painted with black gesso
and dried it off. Then apply
turquoise, cobalt and purple inka gold to
the surface. When dry add gold paint (or inka gold)
to the surface to blend in all the colours.
I have bent a trinket to cover the front of the
swan, so that if you take it off
the nest it is still pretty.
Happy Crafting
