2023 Topic 01: Shrines {by Liesbeth Fidder-De Vos} with Lynne Perrella stamps

Hi everyone!

It's Liesbeth here with you today. You can't imagine how much I enjoyed this project! As soon as I saw the topic ,Shrines' I instantly thought YESSS!

I have always been a big fan of all kinds of shrines and I love to share the making of mine with you and hope you give it a try yourself! 

This is what I came up with: a vintage, a bit medieval, soft coloured shrine with lots of details... with the wonderful Lynne Perrella stamps, metal embellishments, rhinestones, flowers, lace, legs and even real light inside. Of course I also added my ,Tracks'...our 2023 theme for quarter 1: pieces of a very old Ireland map. 

As always I didn't have a plan when I start. For me, the ideas come only when I'm in the creative process, never before. My starting point was this wooden toy farm for children, the shape, and the niche, is perfect to make a shrine. It looks like a triptych. I was inspired by the most beautiful PaperArtsy stamps ever (to me :-) ) LPC012 and LPC013. So very fine and detailed and I love the images... it's about times gone by.

So in this early stage I really didn't know yet what else I was going to use, and where it would end... so let's start and find out!

The first thing I had to do was transforming the toy into a real shrine. It was very smooth and slippery so I sanded the front with sanding paper. After that I let all the colours dissapear by covering the entire piece with three thin layers of gesso, a perfect base.

I needed some structure in the background for a more antique look, so I teared out some old maps and old book paper. I used an old map of Scotland and...Ireland. The style of the Lynne Perrella stamps I use here always remind me of my beloved Ireland...  I glued the paper pieces down with gel medium.

Using a thin layer of gesso here and there I softened the texts and map a bit and I choose three beautiful colours PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints.. blue, yellow and red. Always a safe and perfect combination for mixing colours, it will never get ,muddy´! Caribbean See, Pumpkin Soup and Bougainvillea. I used this three paints and three fingers to apply overlapping small areas. The effect was what I hoped!

More ideas came up: to create a beautiful crackled background for the inside of the shrine. First I painted the inside and some head sides with PaperArtsy Fresco paint - Claret. After drying I covered the inside with PaperArtsy-Crackle Glaze and dried it with the heat tool. I finished with a thick top layer of PaperArtsty Fresco paint-Nougat, and the magic happened, it's always so nice to see the crackles appear!

Now let´s decorate the front of the shrine. To create that medieval, sacred ambiance I decided to use three  PaperArtsy mini stencils (PM015-PA Mini Mask, PM016-PA Mini Mask, PM017-PA Mini Mask) I fastened them on the front with a small pieces of tape, easy to remove. Using a small sponge I dabbed the paint through the stencil, not to much so it doesn´t get under the stencil. At the top I used black (PaperArtsy Fresco paint - Little Black Dress) and at the bottom the off-white I used before (PaperArtsy Fresco paint - Nougat), in the middle I mixed both paints so that it transitions gradually.

Onto one layer of a kleenex tissue, (or use the bottom layer of a paper napkin) I stamped the big woman's head and the two castle ladies with black waterproof ink (I used StazOn - Jet Black) and tore them out. I think the two smaller ladies are perfect like some kind of guards for the shrine.

Before I glued them on the shrine I first stamped one of the other stamps directly on the surface as shown here,  with StazOn - Claret. That ink colour fits perfectly to the Fresco paint - Claret! You also can see here how the stencil prints turned out.

Using some gel medium, I glued the stamped tissues in place.

One of the stamps has that beautiful fringe/tassel thing at the bottom. I stamped it along the slanted edge of the shrine with StazOn - Claret.

Using the PaperArtsy  Fresco paint-Claret again I sponged the edges of the shrine.

After everything was dry I coloured the images of the women with colour pencils.

While I was busy painting, stamping and gluing I thought this shrine with that niche is totally perfect to add real light, because the edges of the niche are not visible from outside! So I bought a string of wire led lights with 20 lights.

I didn't want the string to be to visible so I drilled a hole in the side of the shrine. The lights went through easily. I addhered the battery unit at the backside with double sided tape.

Using tape I secured the wire led lights at the sides of the inside of the niche.

Ok, it was time for the finishing touches and embellishments, and in this case it's a lot, a bit over the top because I love it! :-)

First I coloured a piece of white lace with some Distress ink - Vintage Photo and a brush  to create an antique look. I also coloured some white and pink paper flowerd that way.

Here below you can see the lace is glued onto the 'roof'. Under the woman's head I glued lots of paper flowers, and in between some rhinestones. Also some bigger pink rhinestones onto the jewellery of the lady, and yellow Stickles on her golden adornments. A metal flower with pearl at the front on the stencilled window.

I my opinion it was still a little bare, so I glued some beaded strings at the edges of the niche, below and above.

Four metal legs, and some metal corner pieces to ,frame' the shrine. I thought it was almost finished!

I was not satisfied with one thing: the fringe, it needed a bit of colour to let it pop out and to finish the shrine: a pink glitter marker.

Finished! Here you can see the light catching the sparkle! It's not easy to make a nice picture of the light, this one is pretty good I think.

This shrine was so very much fun to make! I enjoyed the process so much! Some people are scared to start creating without a plan. I recommend you to try it anyway, you will be surprised! I was inspired by the shape of the shrine (farm...haha) and the Lynne Perrella stamps and the ideas really came up naturally. 

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you a great day!

LiesbethXX

Blog: Liesbeth's Arts & Crafts

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