Wild Animals by Gill Humphrey

I clearly have a thing about 3's - I think it's because it gives my eyes a center point to focus on and then move out from - this may not be a visual triangle but it serves a similar effect for me allowing my eyes to travel around my project. For this make I took a pack of the ATC Shrine MDF kits and made up all three box bases  - leaving off the front panel so I could add these once I had covered the boxes with papers from 8 x 8 Savana papers. I distressed the edges of all of the papers with a pair of scissors before adding Vintage Photo Distress Oxide to conceal the white edges of the cut paper. To the inside of the boxes I added a tag cut from the 6 x 6 papers using scrap cardboard to lift them off the back surface and tying some rustic twine through the top for added interested.

Next I rolled out some bright and light clay into the crackle mould then lifted it out of the mould onto the front panels - to keep it secure I applied some Heavy Body Gel to the MDF piece before putting the clay on top as I find the clay is less likely to crack if I use this medium. I also applied clay to the smaller panel that comes out of the front frame piece. 

Once the clay had dried it was painted with Brick Red paint and left to dry before painting over Brown Antiquing Gel and wiping back with a damp cloth. Yes, you could use Vintage Antiquing Paste but the gels are water soluble odourless and non toxic so for me they are definitely a favourite product and they come in a selection of other colours too.

I then carefully lined the boxes up before the smaller panels at the back of the upright as shown and then added the front panels to the piece.

Using the Tribal Masks mould I used more clay to make two masks that would fit in the space between the uprights. Once these were firm enough they were painted with black primer paste. To distress the masks I then used Ochre Antqiuing Gel wiping back to give the effect of aged painted wood and finally added a little turquoise wax to highlight the details. The masks were then adhered to the small panels with gel medium.

 

To decorate the boxes I added some faux greenery from my stash and a mixture of different sized art stones. I die cut some tiny flowers from the papers and then added some Faux Pearls in warm tones by Studio light. before securing them in place in the boxes. 

 

I still felt the piece was lacking something and chose to add the Trees from a Decorative Chips set - painting them with primer paste before adding a little gold metallic wax, before adhering them in place.

I chose some sentiments from the 6 x 6 paper and added them to some mount board for stability before gluing them in place on the top of the box. Finally I added a strip of paper from the 12 x 12 background papers to the back to provide a little bit more security across the joins.

I hope you like this weeks project and are inspired to make something with this beautiful collection.