Snowflake Angel by Karen Hayselden

Hi there lovely friends
How fabulous to be invited back over here to create a little something with the amazing 'Calico Craft Parts' - and my fav time of the year too eeeeek!  I have posted you the best of both, a tute and loads of close-up piccys (12 in all lol) so either go grab a cuppa 'n' sit back or simply peep through the piccys quick stix!

So after a peruse around the web shop and spying all the lush stash, i simply couldn't resist the 'Mini Xmas Wood Shapes'  PRESS HERE to go check out these mini beauties, they are totally irresistible!
After some deliberation (lol) I went for the mini snowflake sets (oh dear!) all 3 sets hahaha they are just too 'itty bitty' darn gorgeous, no bigger than a 20 pence piece!
And I popped a larger snowflake in my basket too mdf style 3 - small I wanted to pop this larger snowflake in the mix so you could get the idea of just how delicate and small the mini's are!

All along I had in mind to create a 'special' Christmas card using the snowflakes, a 3 strand wired wreath covered with the snowflakes and (some of the mini mdf stars), a little crinkle ribbon, a lot of crackle medium, white gesso and in barely there soft cool hues of aqua, midnight navy and greys with a little black to bring it all to life!

But!

i had the urge to use the amazing and oh soooo Christmastime colour red hahaha!

And ta-dah! Snowflake Angel was born.

My piece measures approx 16" x 12" - Stick a few pieces of masking tape and sticky tape around the edges, I covered everything with gesso, sketched (in a very soft pencil and very lightly) the outline of my angel.  I then proceeded to apply a matte gel medium through various stencils (mini snowflakes, tiny irregular shaped interference dots, horizontal bars and mini circles)

Next I filled in my Angel shape, wings 1st as they sit behind the angel -1st I gesso'd the snowflakes, then I painted in the wings with a turquoise colour then adhered the snowflakes over the dried paint, I layered them too and added the odd wooden button here and there, once dry I painted with the turquoise paint. (the large snowflake I gesso'd, applied a coat of  DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish Paint in the colour Everlasting, when dry apply the fabulous DecoArt Crackle Medium and once again when dry apply a coat of the Chalky Finish Paint, I chose a contrasting colour this time so the crackles look more pronounced when they magically appear - my colour choice was Heirloom, All I did then was add a few gold flakes, dry brush white paint on the outer edges and pop a little silver glitter glue on the edges - a lone gem sits on one of the snowflakes tips too - to help the snowflake coordinate with my fairy, I took a wet wipe and lightly rubbed (not all over) a little of the same coloured paint I used for the frocks top bodice and arms)

The frock is created using up old strips of patterned paper, lace and fabric, cut to size. The petticoat are doodle circles over painted again and again (letting each layer dry) add gold flakes for a saucy sparkle.  The bodice and arms are painted in a gold paint mixed with a matte gel medium, apply this in a thick uneven layer as where the arms join the thick consistency of the paint and gel help conceal these joins and make everything look soooo much better.

I outlined her face and features with a very fine 'waterproof' black ink pen, colourised and added the halo.

Before I added any fine details to finish off all the above I painted the edges of my piece with a Christmas red paint, I then added some coloured paints via stencils and doodling over the white spaces in the background, not too much but quite bright merry colours that coordinated with my Angels frock, then i lightly dry brush with gesso over all these bright merry colours and pull the dry brush into the Christmas red to help merge the 2 - I repeat this process many many many times till i get to a happy place!  The snowflakes I pick out with a gold paint!

The snowflakes on the wings needed more depth so I added a golden paint and then a copper paint to their centres and touched up the edges with a drop of white paint and again I repeat the proceed till i'm happy.

Now is when I add final details, I add words in the top corner - lovin' using the words on the black background!

I added gold flakes to various places (around the edges, on the frock, halo, petticoat) and ohhhh boy does this give an extra Christmastime feel as did the 'Artifacts' beads, flakes and glitters I applied to the snowflake wings to make them sparkle and come alive.  I doodled all around the Angel wings/frock with a black pen and pencil, pulling the pencil out into the surrounding white space. Dry brushed the frock with gesso then added doodles in the frock with black pen and made some of the doodles 'pop' by adding dots of coloured paint to emphasise 'em. I also added a few hi-lights and shadows to the frock with dry brush painting,

Colouring pencils are great to emphasise any areas in the 'white space' that need a little more 'lift'  I took an old credit card, dipped the edge in black paint apply the lines around and over the top of the gold flakes on the edges (tones down the glare of the gold and helps it to merge in)  The bottom corners have more of the black lines than anywhere else as this helps to ground and balance the scene - the feet of the Angel are doodled/scribbles around for this reason too although you could get away with an angel floating (lol)

Finally once everything is totally dry I get the credit card again, this time with white paint and drag just small amounts of the paint over the raised stencilled mediums (the raised parts 'catch/trap' the paint beautifully and if i don't like a particular bit I simply wipe away!) I then add some horizontal and vertical white lines and when dry i simply scribble some white ink pen doodles!

So now I have a snowflake angel I can bring out each year to enjoy, she stopping out from now though this year for me to enjoy (my hubby who never passes any comment said 'can't you do pretty - you always do quirky- kooky!' - soooo made me laugh and soooo pleased me - job done in other words!!!

Mwah xoxo
Kassa x