"There's a Howling in the Forest" - Desktop Organiser - by Claudia

Servus and thanks so much for stopping by today!

Claudia here and I would like to share a little somethin' I have made as a birthday present for a dear friend who loves wolves (I guess when you are into fantasy live role playing and go by the first name of Wolfgang this is "your animal" ;)

 ....and as there are some really cool wolf wood shapes in the Calico Craft Parts range I decided to use one of these on an Artist Trading Block with a square opening to make him a small desktop organizer to store his USB sticks or pencils in. (I have already done a wolf themed shadowbox with several awesome wolf wood shapes over HERE quite some time ago)

Calico Craft Parts used: 

- Artist Trading Block Cube Kit - Square Aperture- medium size
- Wolf Howling at Moon - Halloween Wood Corner
-  Winter Tree Scene MDF Wood Shape - Style 2
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Birds - Crows & Ravens

I first glued together the Artist Trading Block (with matte DecoArt Decou-Page, which dries really fast), then I primed the outsides of the block with DecoArt Americana Lamp Black acrylic paint. Once that had dried I used Americana Snow White acrylic paint to paint a rough circle in the spot where the moon was to go and to add splatters to all four sides.

I also used Lamp Black to add a base layer of acrylic paint to the other wood shapes I wanted to use. I cut the large tree scene wood shape into two pieces to use on two different sides. On the fourth side I used one of the ravens from the Mini Wood Shapes sheet. Once the black paint had dried, I dry brushed on layers of Snow White. Using a very fine detail brush I started painting the wolf's head.

Next I applied some DecoArt media Clear Crackle Glaze with a palette knife and set that to the side to let it dry naturally.

In the meantime I continued painting the trees, raven and wolf wood shapes with DecoArt premium paints Cobalt Teal Hue, Warm Grey, Titan Buff, Phtalo Green-Yellow and media fluid acrylics Raw Umber and Prussian Blue Hue.

 Once the Crackle Glaze had fully cured, I used DecoArt media Titanium White Antiquing Cream to highlight the cracks (as always: apply the Antiquing Cream, let set, then wipe back with a damp cloth until you are content with the look). It also turned the black areas where no Crackle Glaze had been added into a beautiful foggy grey.

To add more interest I applied sprinkles of paint using a splatter brush and premium Cobalt Teal Hue and media fluid acrylics Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide and English Red Oxide. Once these had dried I finished that off with a very thin wash of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide to warm up the cold grey and white tones. I also added the wash to the painted wood shapes. 

To apply the painted wood shapes to the Artist Trading Block I used matte DecoArt Decou-Page.

The final step was to seal the whole project with some matte DecoArt Americana spray sealant (to keep the white Antiquing Cream from being activated again and/or coming off).

Et voilà - my hand made birthday present! I hope you like the idea and leave inspired! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx