Crafty Individuals' April Challenge - Nature's Beauty - Bird Cage

I am very excited that my turn has come round again to choose the theme for the Crafty Individuals' challenge.  I have chosen Nature's Beauty as I felt there is such a lovely range of bird, butterfly, flower, and tree stamps amongst the Crafty Individuals' range that you can play around with.

I wish you could see this 'make' in real life as it is difficult to capture in 3d. It is a deep box shaped like a birdcage with acetate windows through which you can see a range of stampbord tiles depicting a variety of nature themed stamps in a pale teal and pink colourscheme, accented with olive for the leaves. It took me days, but it was days of pleasure as I added little bits here and there; a very relaxing make.

I thought I would go into a bit of detail today as I feel really guilty that I haven't done a step by step tutorial yet for Crafty Individuals. The box was bought in the post-Christmas sales a few years ago as I fell in love with the shape, and it contained quickly discarded make up products. I have been saving it ever since and was scared of messing it up. I painted the outside (lid) first with Beach Hut and Mermaid Fresco Finish paint and then stamped it with Script CI 161 and Music Script CI 194 in Archival Inks. I made rolled roses with a selection of Crafty Individuals' background papers. I cut leaves and branches from dies and inked them with Distress Inks, graduating the colours. I made a bird out of clay and a mould and painted him with Frescos and highlighted the wings with Treasure Gold and sat him on a branch. I added a clock to the top which I also highlighted with Treasure Gold. I dotted on some Simply Pearls in places for a pearl accent. So that's the outside.

For the inside, I cut a piece of cereal box to fit the shape and covered it with Crafty Individuals' background paper, piecing it together carefully so it fitted without the joins showing. I spread some Paper Artsy grungepaste through a Mini Art Is stencil for the words.

I used a selection of Bird, Tree, Flower, and Butterfly stamps on Stampbord, colouring the tiles first with archival inks. I used Jet Black StazOn, did some scratching back highlights, and sanded the edges, then coloured the sides with a dark brown Pro Marker. To position them I kept popping the lid back on to see how they would appear through the acetate windows. Finally I added more rolled roses, branches, and leaves, and a leaf and birdcage charm painted with Snowflake Fresco.

I do hope you will join in this month's challenge. As always, you can claim a discount on any Crafty Individual orders placed, just for taking part, which I think is amazing! All challenge details are here.

I thought I would also enter this into the Altered Eclectics challenge as it is altered art in the sense that I have altered a gift box into a home decor item. As it is very much a Spring make which represents New Beginnings, I am entering it into the Country View Challenge which is here.

Thank you so much for all the lovely good wishes on Facebook and Twitter and the cards and e mails for my birthday. Unfortunately I am very behind with everything, and with saying my thank you's, as I have had a crisis this week, and the worst is over. It was wonderful getting so many messages and I will be able to catch up and have some birthday outings now.