October Twins

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven! In the summer I did what I can only describe as a life-changing online class with the amazing artist and teacher, Mary Jane Chadbourne. It was called 'The Imaginarium, the Anthology of an Art Doll'. I learned so many new techniques and met some incredible artists. I made my first three art dolls using wood cut from my kids' old bunk beds! When our lovely neighbours, Scott and Loretta told us they were expecting their first child - or 'children', as they are to have twins - I wanted to create something for them with unusual stamping to create a gift that celebrated fantasy and imagination. I should like to link my little houses to Fashionable Stamping Challenges, where they have an 'Anything Goes' theme.

 I picked up a couple of little money boxes made from MDF and I decided to create 'Day Dream' boxes for the twins where they can save their coins to purchase the toys, books or materials that will stimulate their childhood dreams. I do hope at least one twin will be saving up for paints and clay!

I won't be going into the full step-by-step, as I used many of Mary Jane's techniques and I would strongly advise you to take a course with her if you ever have the opportunity! What I will say is that these little faces are made from Polymer Clay and they are only the second and third faces I've made in this way. They were built up on MDF heart bases and when they were dry they were painted with Gesso, then PaperArtsy Frescos and finally details added with Water Colour paints.

I chose to use PaperArtsy Fresco paints in Turquoise and Very Berry for the houses. Unlike the Art Dolls, these little houses had more space to decorate on the sides. Anyone who knows me or my blog, will be aware how much I love to use Shrink Plastic for embellishing, so as well as embossing the sides and using Treasure Gold for accent, I added painted Shrink Plastic leaves, cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die. You can find my tutorial for creating, painting and stamping Shrink Plastic embellies here.

I think one of those little birds has taken flight and is looking down on the roof-tops, which, as you can see I crackled with PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze and then stamped with the script from PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1006.

I stamped the backs of the houses with the Alphabet stamp from PaperArtsy, Ink and the Dog, Mini 18, and the label encouraging the twins to 'Day Dream' is from a 'Rogue Redheads' plate. 

When I first started to create seriously back in April 2014, I bought some stamps that really captured my imagination. They were Sandra Evertson's Petite Whimsies from Stampington. I wanted to include these on the twins' boxes because they seem so fairy tale and so imaginative to me. If I could have been one of the Good Fairies at the christening of Sleeping Beauty, I would have given her the gift of a vivid imagination because I believe this to be the greatest gift.

I painted my shrink plastic with Fresco paint then cut it into the leaf shapes and finally stamped with Sandra's designs in Jet Black Archival before melting. I used different papers on my little projects: Paper Artsy Chatsworth and Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Oriental.

I spent so much of my childhood daydreaming and I'm a great believer in the importance of dreaming. Without daydreams how will we live a life of purpose and vision? It's our daydreams that reveal to us what who we are and what we have to give to the world. I do hope that the twins will fill their boxes with daydreams and that some day those dreams will become reality for them. Thank you for stopping by today. May all your daydreams turn into creativity this week and in the weeks to come.