A magical discovery.......

Today I've been missing my girls quite a lot. They are back with me in a couple of days but it's so quiet around here without them, so i decided to make a quicky project that they would appreciate.

My girls, like most little girls, are fairy mad. Ok, they have grown up a little now, but they are still always on the lookout for that tiny hint of magic that may be evidence of fairies. In the woods they will run up to the slightest hole in a tree, thinking it's a fairy house. :)

Well yesterday i picked up a little wooden chest in second hand shop, very plain, very new.....well it was.....

I wanted to create the feel of something the girls would find on one of their typical adventures through the forest here. I could just picture them finding a tiny box, covered in twigs and moss, so cautiously and filled with excitement.....they open it.....

The squeal with excitement!!! Inside is a few leaves, and what appears to be the outline of a tiny fairy that has been having a lie down in old the dusty chest......

....it's tiny angel hair blanket, lined with delicate fibres lay strewn under the ivy, obviously "somebody" left in a hurry!

I started off painting this chest white, and was going to try distressing it, however an experiment with a homemade wood stain wash went slightly wrong, so i continued with the enchanted fairy chest idea. It was very plain to start off with....

Some dark moss chalk inks gave the chest a bit of green here and there, i used real twigs and a couple of bits of real ivy....from my fence again! :) The lovely dark red ivy leaves are courtesy of Carolyn's shop over at Crafts By Carolyn's, they arrived this morning in the post as part of a prize i won on the forum.....cheers Carolyn!

The fairy outline was done with part of a Lavinia fairy stamp, i stamped an image, cut it out, and did a light dusting of chalk ink around the mask.

So that's my crafty fix sorted for the day, thanks for looking, i hope you like it. :)