I know it's a little late to be posting about Christmas crafts but I just did not have enough time to post these before - it was a busy Christmas season.
As you all know, Christmas is my favorite time of the year for decorating but I try really hard not to forget the real reason for the holiday. As I was growing up the religious aspects of the Christmas holiday were always important for my mother and father.
I have to admit I love all the festivity of the season and always have but try very, very hard to remember what transpired that allows us to celebrate this holiday. So, I try to incorporate some of the more religious aspects of Christmas into my home decorations and the nativity scene my husband and I have has always been one my favorites.
It's a large wood stable nativity scene filled with china figurines and was the vocal point of a lot of our Christmas decorations for years. Unfortunately, over the years it has been difficult for us to bring the heavy boxes up from the basement but that doesn't mean I don't think about it during the Christmas holiday season. In fact, I think by not bringing it up I think about it more.
I've wanted to create a mixed media nativity scene art picture for awhile but never found scrapbook images I liked for this until this year. I was lucky enought to purchase the "Echo Park - Silent Night Collection - 6 x 6 Paper Pad" from Scrapbook.com before the 6" by 6" pad was discountinued.
I love the simplicity of the images above and thought they would be perfect for what I had in mind.
I wanted the nativity scene to be the focal point of this picture and wanted to sponge paint the background to represent a night time sky as I thought it would highligh the beauty of the holy night. So, I sponge painted it with black, several shades of blue, and gold metallic paints.
I decided to split the sponge painted background into two sections: the sky and the ground. What I had for the sky was perfect. I just needed to add more browns and gold to the bottom of the art board to create the effect of the ground. So, I added two different brown metallic paints to the bottom with my sponges. When my backgound paint was dry I brushed matte medium on it.
To match the night time sponge painted background I decided to use a night time scrapbook paper as the background just for the nativity scene itself that would be the focal point of the picture. The scrapbook paper had a wonderful north star image in it, which would be perfect for my scene.
I put it in the middle of the art board, added the nativity figures and an angel I had cut out and when I was happy with their placement I added Mod Podge to the backs of the paper images and placed them where I wanted them.
I had found paper with the words, "Let heaven and nature sing",which was perfect for the nativity focal point, so I brushed Mod Podge on the back of it and placed it where I wanted it in the sky within the center focal point.
Then I sculpted a clay frame around it with Apoxie A & B sculpting clay. I used stencils to create the impressions in the clay frame. When my paper images and clay frame were dry I brushed matte medium on the focal point scene and hardened clay frame.
Then I glued fiber reeds within the nativity scene to give the impression of straw around the manger.
After the nativity scene was completed I added the paper images I had in mind for the sky and ground. I wanted to use angel images in the sky and other nativity scene images like the Magi, the shepherd, the barn animals, the dove, and a small image of Joseph and Mary travelling that was in the 6" by 6" scrapbook pad.
When I was happy with the placement of the various images I added Christmas holiday sayings that represented the religious aspects of the holiday in the sky and on the ground.
I couldn't help but put some of the lyrics from my all time favorite Christmas noel - O' Holy Night in the picture.
O Holy Night!
The stars are
brightly shining
It is the night
of our dear
Saviour's birth.
After I was satisfied with the placement of the paper images and sayings I brushed Mod Podge on the back of the paper and placed them onto the art board. When they were set I brushed matte medium on all of them.
Once all the images were set and the matte medium had been applied I placed the paper flowers, paper reeds, and wired silk ribbon florals and beaded reeds where I wanted them. When I was happy with their placement I glued them to the art board with low temperature hot glue.
Finally, I added stabilo pencil shadowing around all the images.
My nativity scene picture embellishments included paper images, paper flowers, fiber embellishments, paper reeds, wired silk ribbon florals and beaded reeds, metallic paints, and stabilo pencil shadowing.
When my picture was done I stood back and looked at it. I was very happy with the way my nativity scene mixed media art picture turned out and knew my mother and father would be pleased with it too. I was pleased and hope you like it as well.
Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.
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