Treasures from Enchanted Places

Hello and servus!

It is time for a new challenge over at The Mirror Crack'd and lovely Shilpa is going to be your host this month. The theme chosen for June's challenge is

Shadowboxes

which I guess won't need any further explanation. ;)

But first let me share some exciting news with you and tell you that I am a winner at Tim's 12 tags of 2015 with my May tag! Yay! I really, really loved the burlap he used for his tag and playing with distress and idea-ology goodness - so being one of his top 12 definitely means a lot to me! Thanks to Tim and his team for picking my tag! x

Next let me tell you that I have prepared a new mixed media project and tutorial for you on the DecoArt Mixed Media blog! Here's a little sneak peek that hopefully helps lure you over to take a closer look! ;)

But back to the main reason for this blog post: the new challenge over at The Mirror Crack'd - "Shadow Boxes"!

We all love shadow boxes, don't we? Well, I definitely do!!! They always make us (or at least me) feel a bit like we took a peek into places that are special and enchanted....like tiny realms we cannot enter but at least get a glimpse of their magic.

So with this shadow box I decided to create a kind of keepsake shrine-ish project that would show some of my gathered nature treasures from some of my most beloved (and enchanted) holiday places (like Castle Bernstein for example).

The snails houses, lichen and green serpentine I put into my shadow box were finds from the castle's surroundings.

The background was made from pages from an old French botanical school book with which I covered the mini canvas (using matte Decou-page as usual).Then I dabbed on some Raw Umber acrylic paint to emphasize the frame and draw the focus towards the center.

Some white DecoArt media crackle paint was added here and there. Once it had dried I rubbed in some DecoArt media Raw Umber Antiquing Cream to make the cracks more visible.

The label was cut from left over scraps from the dictionary pages.

A piece of driftwood was added to the top of the box to form a kind of pediment alongside with another small piece of lichen.

All the elements were glued in place with the matte Decou-page. I really love that it dries invisible and holds even bulkier items (like the serpentine) in place.

For a finishing touch I added some strokes of DecoArt media Interference Green and Gold paints here and there around the frame. The interference paints add a bit of bling that only gets visible when you look at the project from a certain angle...so that's a kind of a hidden "treasure" as well.

I love the idea of expressing (and visually repeating) the fact that all these small and rather "unspectacular" objects are real treasures to me by adding that sort of "bling" that isn't visible at first sight either. You really have to examine and look closer to discover all there is to be discovered (which is the same way in nature, right?)

I hope you like my tiny shadow box with my rather personal treasures I put inside!

The challenge over at The Mirror Crack'd will be open until the 4th of July  and one lucky winner will win a prize of £12.00 sponsored by

 to spend at your favourite Woodware Stockist, either in store or on line.

So I highly recommend you now hop over to our challenge blog and get yourself your bundle of inspiration from the rest of the fab DT I am working on and then head off to your crafting desk to create your own shadow boxes! Good luck and happy crafting!

Claudia xxx