Party Time and Crazy Squirrel Lady (Projects 36-38)

I have been meaning to post these projects for weeks, but work has been crazy lately.  It is all I can do to force myself to exercise when I get home from work at night. 

Before we get to the projects, I wanted to mention that Artsy Inkers is getting ready to have a party again this weekend.  I know I mentioned Inktoberfest last October and Winterfest back in March.  Well, Artsy Inkers Reunion starts on Saturday, so named because this will be the one year anniversary for Artsy Inkers.  So I invite you guys to pop over and join in the fun.  I'm going to be hosting a challenge and there will be lots of other challenges to play along with.  A fun time will be had by all. 

Now on to the projects.  This is what I made for my Mom, the Crazy Squirrel Lady, for mother's day. 

Let's start with the gift bag. I took a white bag and inked it with Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters, Spun Sugar, and Picked Raspberry. Then I stamped it with a bunch of critter stamps using Memento ink in Bamboo.   The stamps are by Inkadinkado, TPC STudio, Hampton Arts, and Imaginisce.

 

 

For the present, I started with some 3-D stickers of woodland critters by Jolee's Boutique that my Mom picked up on Black Friday but had no idea what she was going to do with them. You can see the stickers here.   I told her that I would come up with something to make for her with them. And I finally came up with an idea. I decided to make a canvas with little windows for each of the critters.

I started with an 8 x 10 canvas. I used my silhouette to cut squares out of a piece of watercolor paper. I covered the paper with light weight spackle that I tinted with brown ink. 

 

Here's what the light weight spackle looks like:

In addition to adding paint to it, I add a little water to get it smooth enough to smear on the paper.

 

To add texture, I used a plastic knife. It wasn't quite the color I wanted, so I added some Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  Here's what it looked like after I started adding the Vintage Photo.

 

 

 

Then I smeared some white gesso on top. I was going for a weathered wood look.

Then I applied Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean to create the skies. Starting with the deer on the bottom. I cut the birch trees with my silhouette and added some spackle to add texture. Then I added some modeling paste for the snow and added some glitter.

 

For the owl, I created the branch with air dry clay and a fondant mold. I painted it brown.

For the squirrel, I made the tree with air dry clay and a different part of the same mold as I used for the owl. The leaves and pine cone are from a die by Impression Obsession. I colored the leaves with Distress Ink in Pine Needles. I colored the pine cone with Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Vintage Photo. I added some Mod Podge so the paper will hopefully hold up better.

For the Hedgehog, I added some die cut holly leaves from a die by Memory Box. They were colored with Distress Ink with Pine Needles and added Mod Podge. I also added the modeling paste and glitter for the snow.

For the fox, I used the same Impression Obsession die to make the tree and added the modeling paste glitter snow.

For the dove, I just added the holly sticker to it.

All of the critters were attached with hot glue and I hot glued the frame as well. In fact, as I was putting this together, I burned my finger with my hot glue. I had to stop and ice my finger. I got myself good.

Now onto the card. I was inspired by a something I saw on the Hero Arts blog. I really liked the look of the cherry blossom tree. I picked a stamp set by Technique Tuesday that has a tree trunk and a bunch of different stamps for creating the canopy of the tree. I started by stamping the tree trunk with Staz-on in Timber brown. I didn't like the color, so I went over it with a paint brush and Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. Then I daubered Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry. Then I took the flower stamp and stamped it with Picked Raspberry. After doing that, I added Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn to create the sky and grass. I added some leftover die cut grass (My Favorite Things die) I had lying around. 

 

 

To add some texture to the tree, I added some die cut flowers. They were also left-overs (Cheery Lynn die). I added a micro bead to the center of each flower.

I die cut the squirrel (Impression Obsession die) and colored him with chalk. I sprayed him with a sealing spray. For the bouquet of flowers, I had to cut the stem and leaves. I used snippets and colored them with Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn. The flowers were more left-overs (Cheery Lynn) and colored with Distress Ink in Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac and Dried Marigold. I added a clear micro bead to the center of each flower. 

Since I used a bunch of snippets for my die cut pieces, I'm going to enter this over at the playground.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks 178 and 179