"Miniature Art"

Hi, and welcome to you, hope your Saturday is ticking along nicely. Today I am going to share my entry for PaperArtsy's fortnightly challenge titled ' Topic 4 Miniature Art'. Do click on the link to view not only a video describing various types of miniature art but to see the DT's beautiful works of art that inspired me to have a go ! here.

For this I used a mini MDF tag which measures 4.5cm x 3cm and started by giving it a coat of fresco chalk paint in Pea Coat, then a coat of crackle glaze and finally a coat of Nougat.

Then I sanded a small off cut of clear shrink plastic and painted it with Very Berry and when dry stamped in Archival Watering Can using the word spring from the stamp set Bloom.

I then cut the plastic to the right size and shrunk it with a heat gun.

Next I masked off various areas of the tag and gave them a very light coat of various translucent paints which I lightly dabbed off again with a damp baby wipe.

The stamping was done in Versa-fine onyx black ink using stamps from sets LPC030, Bloom, Jofy 13 and 43.

The leaf at the top of the tag was stamped in brilliance pearlescent ivy.

The little bird was heat embossed with clear powder and the beak painted in Zesty Zing.

For the face in the centre I added a little Blush to where I felt the main part of her face would come but left the remainder of the background unpainted. Her eyes were given a dot of sakura belly roll pen and the lips painted with Claret paint. The hair is made from unravelled hairy string!

The watering can had a touch of Pewter paint added to give a slight sheen.

Then I decided to give the girl a hat ----- this I crocheted using some fine cotton and started with 5 chain and worked 5 single crochet but then I tried and unpicked it several times so I don't know what came after that.

Then it was back to the shrink plastic and this time I used the frosted version so didn't need to sand the surface first. The flower head was painted first with Spanish Mulberry and the stem in Evergreen. The flower pot was painted with a mix of Autumn Fire , Chutney and Zesty Zing to get a terracotta type colour.

The top was finished with some fancy yarn, white beads and a small copper flower which I found in my stash.

This photo was taken with the tag on top of a pot of treasure gold to give an idea of the finished size.

I have never done anything in miniature before, I must say it's certainly more challenging and time consuming but great fun -- so if you have a spare couple of hours do give it a try and join in with the challenge over at PaperArtsy.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear your comments, thoughts or tips. Take care and enjoy your weekend.  Jane x

Faceted Cone for Favours or Presenting a Gift

Sunday I was having a play with shaving foam and alcohol inks prepping a batch of background papers and I was just about to clear everything away when I thought hmmm, what would kraft paper look like dipped in the foam mix----- well I quite liked it. So I decided to put it through the Brenda Walton's Sizzix die and make a cone.

The Alcohol inks I'd used were cranberry, mushroom and eggplant. After cutting the cone from the kraft card I decided on a plain deep mauve for the base part.

The top edge of the inside of the cone was stamped with Lavinia mini hearts in Versa-Magic Perfect Plumeria, to add a little interest to the inside.

I then stamped along the top outer edge of the cone in versa-mark using the Lavinia trailing leaves from the recent Magazine free gift set. This was sprinkled with Judi-Kins Embossing Powder Sticky Stuff, once heated this remains sticky so you can then sprinkle on gilding flakes, glitter, mica powders etc. I chose Distress Glitter in Antique Linen but wasn't completely happy with the colour so I then brushed it over with Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold and that made a huge difference.

Next just up from the bottom of the cone I stamped small mushrooms also from Lavinia Stamps in Brilliance Crimson Copper and lightly brushed parts of them in Cosmic Shimmers Antique Red mica powder.

The fairy Mia was stamped in the centre in Adirondack eggplant and once dry the wings were high-lighted with Stickles in crystal. I also added a few drops of fairy dust in the Stickles. 

The cone was then assembled but I felt is needed some form of embellishment so I stamped the Spiral of Spells in jet black Archival onto some frosted shrink plastic, cut it out, punched a small hole before heating. I made a small rose from waxed craft paper, using Tim Holtz tattered floral die, passed the die cut petals through an embossing folder and then spritzed with various coloured perfect pearls.

The very tip of the cone was dipped in pva glue and then dipped into pale mauve glitter. Ribbon was tied to make a handle at the top and fastened with a pearl bead each side. the shrink plastic spell was attached using bakers twine and the rose was glued in place and a small bow added behind the rose. 

Wouldn't a little girl love to be given this with a few sweets in or even a pack of Loom Bands which are all the craze at the moment!

I would like to enter this into Lavinia Stamps monthly Challenge titled ' Add Some Glitter '

Right I must away as the tomato plants are calling me to water them. Thanks for stopping by today I hope you have a good week and all of your comments are greatly appreciated. Take care, Jane x