Season of Magic Vignette

Hi friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog or done a tutorial. The last few months of 2023 were very hectic as I was helping my mother move into a new home. To say it was stressful for her is an understatement, so I tried to be there to help and support her whenever she needed me, which was a lot. Hopefully now that’s she’s all moved in to her new home I can focus more attention to creating and writing more tutorials. Now, on to my newest make.

I love creating vignettes that I imagine from my childhood or from some experience in my life. It’s a little snippet in time that brought me joy. This vignette is one that reminds me of my time in Colorado. The area we lived was an hour from Denver up in the mountains and it was one of the most beautiful places on earth. Lion’s Head, with its majestic peak and beauty, was the main view from my family room windows. Throughout the winter and spring months it was not rare at all to see moose, elk or deer and even an occasion mountain lion or bear. This vignette is a remembrance of the deer that would travel across our land and sit among the pine trees especially in the winter months. It was a happy and joy filled life in those mountains and the memories are ones I will never forget.

Below I will do my best to describe how I put this vignette all together.

To create the antiqued gold deer, I dry brushed each deer with Distress Gilded foundry wax and set it with a heat tool. When the deer was completely cooled, I sanded the chiseled areas with light grade sandpaper.

The tree was sprayed with Distress spray stains and oxides of peeled paint, shabby shutters and rustic wilderness. I set that aside to dry over night. In the morning, I sprayed the tree with Distress Resist Spray and sprinkled the entire tree with Distress Rock Candy. I allowed that to dry completely and then added Distress Mica Flakes in random areas.

For the base, I wrapped the base with Idea-ology Patchwork Linen Tape. I aligned the tape to the bottom of the cork base and wrapped it around starting in the back. Then from the top of the cork base where there was excess linen tape, I cut a bit of it away with a scissors. I didn’t cut it even with the top part of the base, I cut it at about 1/4″ above. Next, I used an old Prima file tool to scrap the top edge of the cork base so it would fray the linen tape. This tool has long since retired but you could use a wide nail file.

For the “Season of Magic” sentiment I used an Idea-ology Christmas plaque and colored it with Picket Fence Distress Crayon. I attached it to the cork base with Idea-ology Tack Nails.

On the cork base, I applied Stamperia Volume Paste with paintbrush. I then sprinkled it with Distress Mica Flakes and allowed it to completely dry. While the paste was drying, I covered several Idea-ology Baubles with glossy accents and applied Distress Rock Candy. I set them aside to completely dry on a craft mat.

To assemble everything together, I removed the sprayed bottle brush tree from its base to expose the wire of the tree. I used a craft pick to poke a hole where I could push the tree into the base. I cut away the back of the tree so it would fit inside the dome once the glass top was placed over top. To avoid having to do this, you could use the Idea-ology Alpine Woodland Trees for this but I didn’t have any on hand. I hot glued the deer tightly next to the tree so they would fit when I added the glass dome. I hot glued a couple of pine cones and the baubles around the deer and a twine bow to the top of the tree. I placed the glass dome over it all, and the vignette was done.

I thought of adding snow to the pinecones but I wanted the pinecones to look like they fell from the pine trees after a snowstorm as I remembered many of them looking when I lived there but if you wanted to add some volume paste to them for snow they would look awesome.

I hope you were inspired by my Season of Magic vignette and that you create some memories from your past in these amazing little glass domes. Thanks so much for sticking with me to the end. I really appreciate the time you spend here with me.

Below is a list of all the supplies I used: