Deb's Southwestern Needle Felted Shadow Box Tray Scene

After my sister and I had gotten a feel for the roving from our Dimensions snowman and penguin needle felting kits we decided we wanted to create some free style needle felted pictures. I decided on a conservative, less challenging winter snowman and tree scene while she embarked on a daring landscape scene the beginnings of which is shown below.

My sister wanted her free style needle felting picture to be some sort of mountain scene with trees, sun, mountains, grasslands and a moose which she's working on in the picture below.

She worked on her scene for quite sometime while I was experimenting with some of the flower molds. All of a sudden I notice out of the corner of my eye that she was ripping felting off her picture. That's the beauty of needle felted crafts if you don't like something just rip it out! So, she did. Rip! Rip!

I didn't realize what she had ripped out until I heard whimpering and then saw the following on my work area:

It was the baby moose. She had ripped the baby moose out of her free style needle felted scene. The poor guy! Just ripped right out......

I really felt bad for him and asked her what happened. She replied that she didn't like it so out he came! Poor baby moosey.....

He was still whimpering after she finished her scene with flowers instead of a moose. Poor baby moosey....

I could see that she was pleased with the flowers and how her scene had turned out. I had to admit it was nice, but poor baby moosey.....

We wanted to use some of the unfinished wood trays we had bought as shadow boxes for our pictures and after trimming her scene a little the medium sized tray worked like a charm as you can see from the picture below:

So, she left it for me to sponge paint and moved on to another free hand style creation. This time it was a gingerbread man that she made using her alpaca, Ivy's, wonderful medium brown roving.
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She worked on it for a while until she got it just right and was pleased with him when she was finished.  He had really turned out quite cute so she decided to take him home with her.  In fact, he had a place of honor in the passenger seat for the ride home.

All the while this was going on I could hear whimpering in the background.  I had moved baby moosey to a different spot so she couldn't throw him away.  I just felt so bad for him.  Poor baby moosey....

After my sister went home and I had finished with the other needle felted free style pictures I was creating I decided to sponge paint all the unfinished frames and shadowboxes we were using for the needle felted crafts we had made.   I sponge painted my sister's scene with a dark brown base with burgundy, light brown, green, and light gray sponged highlights.

I really liked the way it turned out (which is shown in the picture below) and thought the shadowbox tray really enhanced her free style picture.  I hope she does, too!

I had put all the sponge painted projects I had completed on my dining room table over night so I could take pictures of them the next morning.

After setting up the backdrop for my pictures and setting up my camera I put my sister's southwestern shadow box tray on the counter and this is what I saw through the lens:

It was baby moosey. He had found a way to be part of her scene after all.

If you get a chance please check out my sister's Rock Garden Alpacas Etsy Shop where she sells her alpaca fiber and handmade alpaca fiber products.