Spring Fairy House for Frilly and Funkie

Hello friends It's time for the Funkie side of the Frilly and Funkie Design Team to reveal their projects for the current challenge,  'Spring is in Full Bloom'. The lovely Maggi is our hostess this time, and here's how she describes her theme:

This is my favorite time of the year. Here in the south the trees and shrubs are all blooming and showing their splendor. Many are busy planting their vegetable gardens. The migrating birds have returned to build nests and raise a new family. Your challenge is to create a vintage or shabby chic project that illustrates the magic of spring in bloom!

As always, the Design Team will choose their top four picks, and the winner will be invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie. The next three will receive Top 3 badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

You might be wondering where my blooms are! They may be playing second fiddle to my tree trunk, but they are there; tender blossoms subtly peeping out as they would in the first days of spring. At first I thought to go with a full out riot of color, but my mind turned to the earliest days of spring. I guess that's not spring in FULL bloom--my apologies to Maggi!

I started this project a while back with Frilly and Funkie's last challenge (Recycle) as the end goal, but didn't get it done in time, and I had to rush to make my vignette instead.  I began with this bread crumb canister, waste wrap from my last Funkie Junkie Boutique purchase and some aluminum foil I picked up at a recent sale for a good price--FREE and it's Nice! aluminum foil! I bet that came from the dollar store.

I didn't take any photos as I was building the stump, sadly, but it's made in a similar way as my Squirrel House I made here. The difference in building this is that I used Prima Sculpture medium to help hold the shape of the paper layers in gentle folds. I actually worked on this twice a day for over a month, having to allow plenty of drying time between the layers of paper. I would like to add no glue sticks were killed in this project; I used Distress Collage Medium Matte to adhere everything, except in preparing the structure.

***Click on any photo to zoom in.***

Wood texture was created with Wendy Vecchi Crackle Texture paste, black crackle paste, Prima Rust Paste and Distress Grit paste. I layered on color with Distress Oxide sprays in Iced Spruce, then Vintage Photo and lastly Walnut Stain drying and adding more texture in between colors, as the following photos show. I love how the sprays accentuate the cracks of the paste, especially appealing on the black crackle. It's an easy way to add base color.  I was able to use up all that over spray to make lots of backgrounds. You can see the card I made with one of these backgrounds HERE.

Lastly, I added Ground Espresso, Black Soot and Vintage Photo Distress paints using the colors as a wash, smearing straight from the bottle with my finger and also dry brushing to get more realistic texture and coloring. I love how the mixture of all the texture products give this a realistic wood appearance.

Some sheet moss rescued from a wreath years ago lines the interior walls. I spritzed with Distress Resist Spray and lightly sprinkled with Distress Glitter Dust. I suppose I would have had an easier time of it using  the Stampers Anonymous Glitter Duster, but I don't have that. You might catch a glimpse of that 'fairy dust' in the photo below. As per usual, it's difficult to catch with my I-phone camera but I hope you'll trust me when I say it's so shimmery in real life.

Now it's time to embellish!

While this girl is available on her own in Tim Holtz Baseboard Dolls, I  fussy cut my fairy from one of Tim Holtz new Found Relatives and colored her with Vintage Photo oxide spray, Distress crayons(set 5) and markers (Wilted Violet, Mustard Seed). Blending the edges with Walnut Stain Crayon gives her definition. I made a little stand for her using the discarded parts of the card. I will save the other two sweet girls for another day.

Sadly, I also don't have any of Tim's Transparent Wings, so I made a set using Entomology Stamps and Framelits. I painted vellum with Celestial Alcohol Pearls mixed with Blending Solution, and when dry stamped the bumblebee with Black Soot Archival ink. I used the Framelits die to cut the bee out, cut the wings off and adhered them to the girl with collage medium. You can see a little sparkle on her wings. I smeared the teensiest bit of  Resist Spray on the tips of her wings and dipped them into the jar of Glitter Dust. (The dark areas on her dress in the photos below are shadows.)

The dragonfly is one of the Geo Insects Thinlits. I cut two; one from Metallic Confections Kraft Stock and one from vellum. I cut the wings from the vellum bug and the body from the kraft stock insect. I colored the wings with Celestial and Mineral Alcohol Pearls and heat embossed sections of the body and the head with Eclipse Baked Velvet. I love the matte finish this powder creates--it's a perfect foil to the shimmer of the metallic card. I adhered them together with collage medium.

I chose Wildflower Stems #1 and #2 Thinlits sets to make some fanciful greenery and flowers. The ones adorning the doorway were cut from sanded Confections card and were pounced and  drizzled with Alchemy and Celestial alcohol inks.

The stems around the sides were cut from a scrap of water color paper I had previously used to mop up Cracked Pistachio Oxide spray. I added Wilted Violet marker with a water brush.

Some of the flowers are Idea-ology Bouquet colored with Mermaid Lagoon, Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint oxide sprays. I had two similar looking vintage flowers in my stash that I added, as well as a little foam ball cluster that fell off a wreath. It's was the only one I had, so I colored Prima's Art Stones with  Cracked Pistachio and Faded Jeans sprays for a similar look.

Here are some more photos and close ups for you to enjoy. The first was when I was working out my exterior embellishments and checking how the fairy would fit.

 

 

 

Thank you for stopping by today! Please be sure to visit Frilly and Funkie for even more springtime inspiration. I hope you will be inspired to create your own vintage or shabby chic spring themed project and link it to our challenge. Hugs and blessings! Sara Emily

Challenge shares:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes
Scrapy Land Challenge #113 Anything Goes I used 3 Sizzix dies.

We Love 2 Create at Polkadoodles Challenge # 5 - Anything Goes Mixed Media Creative Challenge
Country View Challenges May 2019 - Opposites I mixed the unearthly (fairy, metallic flowers) with the natural (tree stump/moss/blue flowers)

Mixed Media Place April challenge I was inspired by the blues and trees.

These products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique :

 Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Sprays
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Found Relatives
Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Pearls
Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Blending Solution

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Archival Mini Ink Pad Kit #3
Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Geo Insects
Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 5PK - Wildflower Stems #1
Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 5PK - Wildflower Stems #2
Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Confections Kraft Stock
Seth Apter Baked Velvet - 3 Piece Neutrals Kit

Prima Art Extravagance: Sculpture Medium - Clear	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDA47933	Wendy Vecchi Crackle Texture Paste	Prima Art Extravagance - Rust Paste - Military Rust (3pcs 50ml)	Distress Grit Paste
Ranger Tim Holtz Ground Espresso Distress Paint TDF50605	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Black Soot TDF52937	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Vintage Photo TDF53354	Tim Holtz Resist Spray 2oz	Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Dust - Vintage Platinum TDR49753
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #5 TDBK51756	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Markers - Full Set	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayon - Walnut Stain TDB49654	Sizzix Framelits Die Set - Entomology by Tim Holtz 663068	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Entomology
Prima Art Ingredients - Art Stones