angel of the fallen snow

December has been a busy month, preparing for Christmas with holiday decorating and shopping; trying to make everything extra special for the birth of baby Jesus.
My Christmas decorations have always included angels. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to create an angel with the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts santos doll that I can include in my displays. Recently, I was gifted a few found antlers, and this year much of my decor incorporates them among evergreens. This inspiration carried over and "angel of the fallen snow" was born.
Today I am on the GSLC blog sharing this piece.

I love working with the GSLC santos doll, this is the second one that I have made. The first, "bird lady," can be found here. The santos doll arrives flat. Carefully remove the pieces from the surround and wipe down the edges with a dry cloth. I like to do an initial assembly (without glue) to gather ideas. When I pre-assemble the santos doll, I check to make sure that whatever I will be locating within the caged skirt has adequate space and looks appropriately scaled.

Once I have settled on an idea, and have gathered my components, I dis-assemble the chipboard pieces and begin. To give the cage portion of the santos a natural woodsy feel, I begin by painting the base pieces with a layer of traditional burnt umber acrylic paint. Each piece is painted on both sides and allowed to dry. Next I dry-brush metallic brushed bronze paint onto the pieces to add highlights. While I have the brushed bronze paint out, the doll torso and arm pieces are painted on both sides and set aside to dry.

Once all of the paint has dried, I glue five of the six cage uprights into the base. I place the top circular flat piece onto the uprights without glue so that the pieces will attach at the right angle. One of the uprights is left out to facilitate adding the contents to the base. I glitter two dyed bottle brush tress and secure them onto the base with glue. 

Next, I use a palette knife to add texture paste around the trees. I carefully mound some areas along the wooden tree bases to make the scene appear like drifted snow. The texture paste is coated with collage medium and sprinkled with distress mica flakes to create the natural drifted snow effect. Two glittered Ideaology deer are also added to the scene. The last upright is then glued into the base.

With the base scene in place, I begin to work on the doll. I add a narrow piece of crocheted lace around the edge of the top flat circle. This same lace is used to create a cuff detail around each wrist. These pieces are set aside to dry. The angel's halo is created with a large snowflake from the GSLC snowflake shape set. I carefully remove the snowflake and then coat one side with collage medium and sprinkle vintage platinum glitter dust to cover the entire snowflake. The second side is finished in this same manner. The glittered snowflake is then attached to the back of the doll's head with hot glue. The doll arms are secured together using jump rings allowing them to bend and pose.

With the crocheted lace edge secure, the top circle can be attached to the cage uprights with glue. 

I begin to create her wings. Using a die, I cut the layered wings from multiple papers. Each layer is edged along the bottom with glue and glitter dust and then secured together. The back side of each wing has an added (mid size) layer of glittered paper. While the wings are drying, the doll torso is inserted into the slotted opening and glued in place. A larger width of crocheted lace serves as a shawl around the doll's shoulders. It is fastened in the front with a glittered snowflake from the snowflake shape set minis. Lastly, the angel wings are attached to the doll's back with hot glue.

I love the way the glitter captures the light and sparkles. 

The angel of the fallen snow stands guard over her beloved deer.

Thank you so much for stopping by today, 

I truly appreciate you taking the time during this busy season. 

Wishing you a wonderful holiday, however you celebrate!

Merry Christmas

~Ann

 xxx

supplies:

bottle brush trees

Distress collage medium: matte

Distress glitter: clear rock candy

Distress glitter dust: vintage platinum

Distress mica flakes 

DecoArt acrylic paint: brushed bronze, traditional burnt umber 

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:

santos doll, snowflake shape set minis, snowflake shape set

hot glue & hot glue gun
paint brush
Ranger opaque texture paste
Tim Holtz Ideaology: decorative deer, jump rings, trimmings lace
Tim Holtz/ Sizzix: Bigz: layered angel wings

bird lady

Hello everyone, today I am on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog,
sharing "bird lady," an inspired santos doll.
For me, some of the first sure signs of spring are the birdsongs. I love seeing the robins, with their feathers still fluffed for warmth, come out and grace the landscape. Then, ever so gradually, many other species arrive to join in the song.
It definitely brings hope and eager anticipation for the warmer days ahead.
 This is the inspiration behind "bird lady."

I begin with a Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts santos doll. This set arrives flat; I carefully remove the pieces and wipe off the residue from the laser cuts. Next, I like to assemble the piece (without glue) into it's three dimensional form so that I understand how it will look as a finished piece. This allows me to visualize which finishes to use as well as helps to focus my ideas. 

Once I have settled on a theme, I disassemble the piece. One side of each part is painted with raw umber paint. The two flat circular disks are painted on both sides. When the paint has dried, using collage medium, I cover the unpainted sides with french book pages from my stash. This paper will serve as a base that I will layer over.

While the adhesive is drying, I put together the tiny bird box and tiny bird houses. Each of these sets contains pieces to make either: two tiny bird boxes, or two tiny bird houses. For this project, I have used one set of tiny bird boxes and two sets of tiny bird houses. The pieces are very small; however, they are fairly easy to put together. On the bird houses, one of the roof planes is just a bit longer than the other. When you assemble the house, be sure that the longer piece overlaps the edge of the smaller roof plane. I have added tiny shingles standard to the roof on one of the bird houses. The bird houses are painted with a mustard yellow color and then dry brushed with brown paint to create an aged wood look. The bird box is finished in a similar manner, but using a tuscan red color as a base. The roof of the bird box is painted with copper paint. A very small screw eye is attached to the center of each of the bird house roofs. 

Collage tissue paper is adhered over the book pages in a random pattern along the cage pieces of the santos' skirt. An image of a bird is collaged onto the bodice. The collage tissue is covered with distress collage medium to ensure translucency as well as a seamless transition. The edges of the pieces are sanded and then inked with brushed corduroy distress ink.

A branch is wedged into the santo's skirt and a small nest is secured into the "V" created by the twiggy branch. Three small eggs are safely tucked into the nest. 

The bird houses hang from chains grasped by the bird lady's petite hands.

She wears the bird box on her back, inviting another family to make it their home. Gold swirls and dots adorn the back side of the torso and arms. 

The bird lady's hair is an upside-down nest. Placed on her head and secured with collage medium. Resting atop, is a Relics & Artifacts robin preparing to take flight on a new adventure;

while we await the arrival of her littles.

I hope that you are enjoying these early days of spring and perhaps are inspired to create something that captures the beauty of this wonderful season. 

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog,

 I truly appreciate it.

~Ann

 xxx

supplies used:
branch
copper jewelry chain, jump rings
craft egg miniatures
craft nest miniatures
Deco Art acrylic paint: tuscan red, marigold, traditional raw umber
Distress Collage Medium: matte
Distress Ink: brushed corduroy
Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:

Santos Doll, Tiny Bird Box, Tiny Bird House, Tiny Shingles Standard

Relics & Artifacts Resin Blanks: Mythos - bird
Tim Holtz Ideaology:
collage tissue paper- aviary, small fasteners, screw eyes