Friday, March 12, 2010

spring nesting


spring is a time for new beginnings, a time for darling little chick eggs you can hold in your hand. So much to hold inside until the rays of the sun warm the earth and little sprouts of the season can be visible with the naked eye. Winter leaves its frozen mark with the breath of spring, can you smell the fragrance of warmed dirt and tiny crocuses?  The sound of birds singing their welcome tunes?  A promise that tiny eggs will hatch and bits of earth will bloom with spring color. 



 Just as the frozen earth sheds it's winter coat new ideas are hatching at the art nest, more art retreats to nurture your spirit and soul, our very first art nest magazine, Everyday Nesting coming out this Spring,   as well as this little chick warming in the sun. 


 He is the announcer of our very first nesting kit.  Each box a little present from the art nest stuffed with goodies and unique vintage finds, hand packed and created for you to indulge yourself with a little creative nesting.  


Wool aqua felt from a vintage dress, blue bobble beads rummaged from a forgotten necklace, scarab blue seam binding to tie around your tiny treasures.



little bits of spring to make you happy even gleeful to touch.  a tiny bottle of german glass glitter, pink millinery mushrooms, glass currants, and other little vintage finds.



  paper mache egg made in western Germany,  silver german scrap tucked inside for use 



Where to begin with this lovely egg?   Sketch out your design thinking about how you want your finished egg to look, then gather your goodies from your kit.  I decided to cut a little peep opening in the egg, using my poker and then tiny sharp scissors.  I used a sanding block to smooth out the edges.



 then I painted the egg with Golden's titan buff, raw umber, and cobalt teal mixed to the perfect robin egg blue. 



 Let the egg dry.  After it is completely dry coat it with a thick coat of  acrylic gloss like McCloskey's clear coat.  This takes a little more time to dry so you might want to go get lunch.  When you come back your egg will be  shiny and look like a sky of blue glass.




now it is time to fill the inside of the egg,  Cut a piece of the aqua wool felt and glue it in the bottom of the egg, I just eyeballed it then adjusted the size a little. Poke a tiny hole in the top and add a blue bobble bead and vintage seam binding tied in a little bow.  Finally, tuck inside the egg your little chick in a nest made from paper shred, aqua felt and vintage millinery.




To finish the front add ric rac, tiny vintage trim around the opening, (use tacky glue)  spring  embellishments and a little bit of book text, finish your blue little egg by adding a tiny flower from an old  hat at the bottom of your little peep window. For more lovely finished spring eggs see Julie's blog and you can drool over her artful thursday project another tutorial using the spring nesting kits.



Happy Spring Nesting
xoxo
Candice





A sneak peak at our spring nesting kit. In the art nest shop.