Home decor .....

Click here for my 52CCT card.

...  Hi - no card in this post.  I attended a craft class on Thursday night at my local craft shop, Stampeddlar.  The class was to create some wall art for your home and was run by the very talented (and fun) Valerie Brincheck.  We 3D wall art from Kaisercraft (an Australian crafting company that I just love) called Bird on a Twig.  Here's my finished project:

Products: Kaisercraft - Bird on a Twig; Elegance DP (12" × 12"); Sakura pens - Glaze and Stardust; Distress Stains - Evergreen Bough; Distress Inks - Broken China; Gems; Flowers

I picked this gorgeous paper to decorate my wall art - I just love the colours - I actually have the 6½" pad!  It was so easy to create.  The first thing we did was stain the edges of each piece with Distress Stains - in my case it was Evergreen Bough (goes perfectly with these papers) and allowed them to dry.  I picked my favourite patterns, cut four 3" strips and a smaller 2" strip (for the backing bits) and ran them through a Xyron (you can you wet glue, but it's so much quicker and easier to make the strips self-adhesive) and I cut a larger piece for the bird.  I did each panel in turn, sticking on the paper, turning the panel over and used a craft knife to remove the excess, then sanding the edges to make them smooth (and ensure they won't lift up from the panel).  The bird was a little fiddly, but it worked okay.  I decided to do the twig in a different paper to the bird, and I'm really pleased how it turned out.

Once all the panels and backing mounts were covered, and I'd decided on the order I wanted, I flipped over the panels and pencilled a line 2" from the top and 2" from the bottom - applied some super sticky glue to the outer panels and attached the top mounting strip - making sure the edges of the panel and mounting bar were level; I repeated this for the bottom mounting bar.  I allowed the glue to dry a little, carefully turned the assembly over and added the two inner panels.  I used the super sticky glue on the back of the bird and twig and attached it to the backing panels.

Once the whole assembly was dry (I took it home and completed it here) I had fun adding some embellishments.  I kept it reasonably simple.  I used some gems in the flowers and paisley designs, traced over the flowers on the grey panel with my clear Stardust pen and added some glaze detail to the flowers and paisley with the clear glaze pen.  I brushed the edges of the flowers with distress ink and then spritzed them with water - allowing the water to bleed into the flowers, giving a lovely soft effect.  Once dry, I attached them with gel glue. I finished off by cutting out some butterflies from the left over paper (panel on the left), adding some glaze to highlight the design on each butterfly, adding gems and then adhering to the panels.  Here's a close up of the completed panels:

I wish I'd taken some photos of the other panels made - they were all so pretty.  I had such fun making this wall art - I think I may make some more!

Edited to add:  If you want to see what my piece looked like before I decorated it - check out the link to Stampeddlar here.  The link also shows the boards created by the other ladies - all just lovely!

That's all for now, I've got to go out and plant some flowers that I got for the garden - I think I'm going to be working between the rain!  Still, it'll be good for the plants!  See you soon.