Nature's Dwelling A Triptych by Lynne Moncrieff

Hello

It has been some while since I worked with a That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF Triptych House and it was calling me to return to it.

Although I incorporated papers which I had previously eco-dyed, it is easy enough to achieve different strength of colour from the Walnut Ink Crystals and by staining different types of papers with different strength of walnut ink, variations would be easily achieved.

Have fun with Walnut Ink Crystals - mix with tea or coffee or with some of the That's Crafty! Sprays.

Supplies

That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF Triptych House
That's Crafty! Multi-Purpose Craft Adhesive
That's Crafty! Walnut Ink Crystals
That's Crafty! Liquid Acrylic Wax
That's Crafty! Medium - White Gesso
PaperArtsy Ecelctica Cling Stamps EAB04
PaperArtsy Eclectica Cling Stamps ECF05
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection: Pressed Foliage
Archival Ink Jet Black
Extras: found items - branch, dried leaves, eco-dyed rice papers, black embroidery thread, sewing machine, black sewing thread.

Instructions

The prep involved in this was firstly applying Gesso to the MDF panels. For the walnut ink stained rice paper, I had this paper already stained - it was under-paper when staining other items with walnut ink crystals, creating a lovely mottled pattern which when dry, brought to mind tree bark.

To apply to the MDF, Acrylic Liquid Wax was first applied to the panel, gently laying the stained rice paper on top, smooth out any air bubbles. The edges can be gently torn away.

This was carried out for all panels, both sides of each.

As it dried, it struck me that the problem I could be facing when adding details, was in trying to retain the essence of this wood-like appearance. This stopped me moving forwards for sometime.
It was only as I was amongst my fairly large box (!) of eco dyed papers, etc, that I had the thought of stamping onto torn pieces of eco dyed rice paper, the papers would certainly bring a natural appearance to the triptych.

First, stamping one of the Pressed Foliage stamps onto each door of the triptych before stamping again onto two pieces of torn rice paper.

I didn't want the torn papers to accommodate the stamped leaves, knowing that layering over the stamped leaves on the door panels would enhance texture and my need for layering.

Jumping ahead - here are the front sides of the door panels.

Around us, there is so much we can discover to incorporate into our projects, especially when they relate to nature.

I am drawn to working with a stamped leaf alongside a dried leaf. A simple, naive cross-stitch was stitched with black embroidery thread on the dried, pressed leaf.

Returning to the steps of the project. I turned to another stamp set, PaperArtsy ECF, two more leaves were stamped onto more torn eco-dyed rice paper.

They would eventually be adhered to the rear side of each door panel.

Each stamped leaf was layered to other pieces of eco-dyed papers, including pieces which I had also applied the fabulous Liquid Acrylic Wax to.

The two small bundles were taken to the sewing machine, sewing down the centre of each leaf.
This is the panel, adhered to the rear side of a door panel.

For the largest panel, I again layered eco-dyed papers, thicker pieces this time which have the most amazing texture and once again, a piece which had Liquid Acrylic Wax, bringing a lovely translucent element to the layers.

Knowing I wanted words to appear within the triptych, I turned to PaperArtsy EAB, I can always take comfort that there will be the words to evoke what I am trying to bring forward with a project, amongst the Alison Bomber designed PaperArtsy stamps.

I wanted a different layout of the words than as they appear on the stamp. Simply, inking up the words I wanted and where the ink touches any words that I do not want stamped, I remove the ink with a cloth (or sometimes simply with my finger!).  Then continuing on, with the inking and stamping

This beautiful deep red leaf brings a lovely pop of colour when the doors of the triptych are opened.

A twig was added to the back panel.

I removed the MDF, to expose the holes for binding - keep hold of the MDF pieces, I used two of them, appearing at the top of the front door panels. To bind, I used cotton covered wire, cutting into approx equal sized pieces before threading each piece through a hole, wrapping tight.

A project like this could be a nice idea as a keep-sake, a place to display leaves collected (responsibly) from a favourite place/walk.

Thank you always for your visit.

Wishes
Lynne