How I Made My New Handmade Mixed Media Deer and Miniature Christmas Trees

Sometimes I don't get around to making some of the Christmas decorations I want to make until years later.  I always seem to have these wondrous visions of how some of my Christmas scenes should look but don't have time to make the decorations that year.  So, they wait, and wait, and wait until I have time.

Such is the case with my dining rooms Christmas carolers scene.

For years now I've wanted to add some mixed media Christmas trees and mixed media deer to the outside portion of my carolers scene.

With everything else I was making now seemed to be a perfect time to add them.  Plus, in the event I didn't put the carolers scene up this year I could always use them by themselves elsewhere.

So, of course I decided to make them along with everything else I was currently making for Christmas..

I started with the 8" unfinished wood deer I had and first painted her and her stand black.

I wanted her deer fur to appear 3 dimensional so I decided to apply modeling paste to her body, head, and antlers.  When it had dried and I was happy with it I painted the antlers dark brown and the rest of her body medium brown.

I had wanted to add painted black eyes but when I did I didn't like them so I removed them.

After the brown paints had dried I wrapped a green metallic trim piece around her neck and tied it in a bow in  the front of her.  Under the bow I added a three dimensional decorative holly piece that had an adhesive strip on the back.

The final touches were to add Alene's True Snow on the top of the base and around her feet.

Then while waiting for the snow to dry I embossed an unpainted Merry Christmas sign with gold powder.  When everything was dry I glued the Merry Christmas sign to the front bottom of the deer.

She was all set for my scene now.

In my crafting supplies stash I had 4 unfinished miniature wood trees in various sizes (8", 7" and two 6" tall) and 4 miniature papier-mâché boxes with covers in various sizes.  I thought the trees could be affixed to the top of the boxes liker a tree stand.  Only, instead of a typical tree stand these would be decorated Christmas boxes covered with snow.

So, I set about to create them.

I didn't want my trees to be boring wood painted trees so I decided to add modeling paste to them to add texture.

First I glued the tops of all the papier-mâché boxes to the bottoms of the boxes so they wouldn't move and would be firm enough to hold the weight of the miniature wood trees. Then I added scrapbook collage paper to the all the sides and top and bottom of the boxes.

Once the collage papers were dry I glued the miniature wood trees to the top center of the boxes I wanted to use for each tree and then painted everything black.

I added the modeling paste to the trees and tree base.  Once I was happy with the modeling paste and it had dried I painted the trees dark green and painted their base dark brown.

I had decided to decorate the boxes in a festive manner and had already added scrapbook collage papers to the bottom of the boxes and red adhesive felt strips to the sides of the box top.

Then I added Alene's True Snow to the entire top of the Christmas box top.  Once the snow was dried I glue a three dimensional glitter Christmas wreath to the front of the box side.

Once all  of this was done I added the decorations around the trees.  I had decided to only add glitter start ornaments to the top and miniature bead garland as well as glitter elastic garland decorations around the trees.

The tree were just too small for any ornaments and I didn't have any I thought would be small enough for the miniature trees.

Turns out I didn't need to worry about miniature ornaments as the trees were perfect the way they were.  They were going to look great in the scene.

The picture above is a close-up of the way the other three miniature trees looked.

The picture above is a close-up of the way the other three miniature trees Christmas box base looked.

The picture above is a close-up of the way one of the other three miniature trees decorations looked.

I was pleased with the way my mixed media deer and miniature Christmas trees turned out.  Now let's see if I actually set the carolers scene up this year.

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