Guest Designer - Niki

Please say hello and a big welcome to today's Guest Designer - Niki of Pawsitively Creative. Niki was the winner of our Time to Take Flight challenge.

Hello lovelies! I am stoked to be here as a guest designer and to be among so many wonderfully talented people's. As the winner of the Time to Take Flight challenge, I was asked to create something for this months theme of "Elements of Nature". Before I get into the design process here is a little bit about me.

By day I am a Vet Tech ninja and have been in the Veterinary field for over 13 years. I love my career and being able to use my knowledge to help save any and all animals. Yes, I enjoy the scaled ones, the slimy ones and the smelly ones (baby skunks are adorable!).

I still consider myself new to mixed media and challenge blogs. Back in April 2014 my husband bought me a couple of canvases and an acrylic paint set for my birthday. I wasn't thrilled about it at first. When I was younger I drew, painted, and crafted all the time but at age 17 I broke both of my arms, and never got back into my art because I couldn't use my left hand/wrist like normal. I gave up my art. So when I saw the art supplies my husband bought me I figured I would give it a go just to make him happy. Boy was he (and I) in for a huge surprise when I finished my first piece.

At the time I loved it but kept thinking that I could improve, and I like to believe that I have improved by leaps and bounds due to the challenge blogs that I found and also because of the wonderfully talented and supportive people I have found in blogland. You all make me challenge myself every time I create something and I just want to say thank you very much for that.

I have created a mini garden top hat. This started out as white crafters foam and then I overlaid the top hat with birch tree panels.

Once the panels were in place I did the same thing to the top of the hat and used some brown leather to define where the top piece met the sides. While that was drying I set about making the little door, the leaves, and the filigree mold. The door was rolled out with white polymer clay that I then stamped into.

Cool huh? I used an X-ACTO knife to cut the door into 3 pieces. All the clay parts were baked then painted with a mix of raw umber acrylic paint, Adirondack dabbers, espresso distress paint and some Silks with a dash of Emerald Green Viva Decor.

I then painted my hat with some sea foam acrylic paint and started laying out moss, English moss, and little tree stumps (a stick I cut up with a jig saw).

I used some flower picks that were leftover from a previous project. Everything was glued to the brim of the hat with a hot glue gun since I ran out of my favorite glue. The "dirt" path was made from coffee grounds and the stones are art stones that were painted with distress ink.

I wanted to put a fanciful spin on this design so I got out my stencil and used some washi tape to isolated one word. I stenciled this on a piece of frosted vellum with some modeling paste.

Then all of the bits and bobs were added to the hat! Viola! Mini garden top hat! Here are some pictures of the sides of the hat. This side shows the filigree piece.

This side of the hats shows the little jar of blue stones that bring good luck to the owner of the top hat house.

I added some butterflies, flowers and a little bird to finish off the piece.

Hopefully something in here inspired you to create a design for this challenge. I sure had fun with it!

Huge thank you to the team for inviting me over to have a play. This challenge theme was exciting and awesome sauce! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

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What a wonderful project and step x step from Niki. Now that she has inspired you, we would love it if you would create something for our Elements of Nature challenge since it doesn't end until next Wednesday.