...and an Emu in a Gum Tree (!)

I cut and decorated this egg a few years ago to give to my mum - then couldn't bear to part with it (anybody else ever do that? lol)  It sits on the hall table in my entry year 'round... but I do only open it at Christmas, well usually!  I've never "shared" this before, I hope you find it interesting.
One of the songs we have here for Christmas is an Aussie version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, where we have "an emu in a gum tree" instead of a partridge in a pear tree...   this is an emu egg, in a Christmas theme so it always brings that song to mind.  There's a lot of photos, but with this sort of project it's all about the detail so I hope you forgive me, the inside of the egg was the most work, so feel free to skip to them, lol

Emu eggs are between a Goose and Ostrich egg in size and are a gorgeous dark teal colour, unfortunately that didn't go with my theme so I painted the outside of the egg (after cutting it; very smelly and very fiddly!) with Warm White Jo Sonja acrylic paint, then sealed it.

The poinsettias are made from goose eggs, using the natural curve of the egg makes them more lifelike somehow.  They were painted pale pink then loads of very fine Star Dust glitter was added, very fine gold cord outlines them, the centres are tiny hole-less gold beads with some Swarowski crystals added for even more bling!  The  duck egg leaves were painted green with a Gold Crystal very fine glitter, gold cord outlines and "veins" .

 The "loops" on the front were finished with clear beads AB Crystals and Siam Crystals,  I added Texture Paste to the swirls on the sides before adding Star Dust glitter to them too. 
The findings all came from my local craft shop, which has unfortunately closed down now - it had such a wide range of products I miss it dearly! 
It's where I did my fabergé egg classes and got the pattern for this egg from too.

The back of the egg was cut in a lattice pattern like the front but plainer ;-)  I put a scene inside made from a Christmas card, it's hard to see in the pics.  
I then decorated the inside of the egg to look like a living room on Christmas morning - just without all the wrapping paper and people in pjs, lol.I painted the inside of the egg pink, adding detail to make it look like wallpaper. I made a fireplace from card,there's a photo of Santa in a gold frame over it, and candlesticks made from toothpicks too!  It's trimmed in true Christmas fashion with holly and (red bead) berries.  There's a toothpick fire in the hearth.  I made the rolled ribbon roses for the little tree, and added tiny bows too. 

The pièce de résistance is the lights on the tree, they light up when you press a button hidden under the (fabric) carpet.  A Christmas medley plays and the lights flash for about a minute.  I put a red globe in the fire too, so that flickers.  Every child that presses that button has a look of such wonder on their face, it fills my heart :-)  I've taken a picture, it is of necessity dark and sort of captures it, but as with most things crafty it's much nicer in real life!

I'm entering my egg in a number of challenges - I did try and weed out the challenges I thought were only for Papercraft -  if you think it's not appropriate for your challenge, please feel free to remove my entry, I hope you enjoyed looking at my project anyway :-)

Those challenges are:  
Papertake Weekly Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Anything Goes

Craft Us Crazy Christmas/New Year

Joanna Sheen With Love at Christmas

2 Sisters Challenge Anything But A Card

Cutie Pie Challenge Cute Christmas (the inside is cute, and it's for Christmas)

That Craft Place Christmas

Oozak Anything Goes + Pink and Bling

Creatalicious Challenges Christmas (non traditional colours)

By the Cute and Girly Cute and Girly

My Mums Craft Shop Anything Goes

I'll be back in a few days with a card - and a lot less photos, promise!

Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Musical Unicorns

Another birthday, another ....egg!  If you look at my older posts, you'll see the carriage egg I did for my Fathers 70th birthday; this egg is the one I did for my Mother's 70th - I can't believe its ten years old!! 

This one is an Emu egg, it took quite a bit of cutting and NO, the holes are not big enough for the unicorn inside to fit through!  I cut a section off the bottom of the egg, filled the cut off section with plaster of paris then set the unicorn (duly painted and glittered) on it before gluing the egg back together - there, my secret is out!  I also drilled through the bottom of the egg so that I could put in the shaft from the musical box that it sits on, so the whole egg turns as it plays; you wind it up by turning the plaque.

I painted the whole egg with a base coat then used Duncan Liquid Pearls in jewel colours, blending them together so there is a seamless transition from one colour to the next.  

After painting (this one didn't need sealing as the pearl paints are self-sealing) I trimmed the edge of each hole (perhaps I should use the word "aperture" or something, "hole" doesn't sound very elegant, does it? lol) with gold cord.  

The last step for the egg was gluing on all those little Swarowski  crystals (these are the AB ones - AB stands for Aurora Borealis and means they "throw" multiple colour not just clear) in a surprisingly-hard-to-keep-to random pattern! I kept making rows, which is in my nature, I'm a list maker so randomness doesn't come that readily!

Finally I stained and sealed the plaque and the stand.  The stand, which holds the musical mechanism, is in fact an upside down box!  I fixed the mechanism to a sort of lid that fits inside the box, then just lowered the box over it.  I thought the chain gave the piece a carnival feel.

In real life it looks really beautiful (I know, everyone says that), especially when it  is spinning - all that glittery goodness!

Mum had a perspex cover made for it, she wasn't about to dust it all the time, and who can blame her?  I thought that's what daughters are for, to give mothers something to occupy them in their dotage!  Or perhaps it was revenge for all those noisy toys (known in our house as "Nanna toys") that were given to my sons when they were young - only joking!! 

 Hope your day is magical and full of music too, Dee

Dragon or Dinosaur Egg??

Thought I would post a few pictures of an egg I did for my sister a few years ago - she loves all things fantastical so I get my fix of wizards and witches, dragons and fairies, butterflies and whimsy by making gifts for Fi! 
 The egg is an ostrich egg, I cut it in half horizontally in a zigzag.  I then cut the top in half in a zigzag, the pictures speak for themselves really.  I painted the outside in a teal colour and then a coat of Duncan Pearl Acrylic.  Inside is lined with a stretch metallic type fabric: my sons were in the ballroom dancing circuit at the time and I had access to scraps of all kinds of fabrics, I still use some of the bits of lace and trim I got from their partners!

Dina the dragon baby (what else do you expect to find in an egg!) was a cheap ornament I found in a discount store, I painted her up and added a  bit of bling.  How cute is she?!  






I really love her little baby bottle, she has green Swarowski crystals along her spine and two tiny red ones in her nostrils.  

I'll post some more of these mystical themed projects soon, it seems appropriate coming up to Halloween!

Hope you enjoyed meeting Dina, see you soon - until then time will just drag-on (I can hear you groan from here!) Dee

Horse and Carriage Egg

I've finally got around to posting photos of some fabergé eggs that I have decorated.  I don't have photos of all the ones that I decorated before I had a digital camera, only those like this one that I still have access to.  This egg was decorated for my dad's 70th birthday, my mum commissioned me to do it,  my gift was the work that I put in.  

This particular egg I got from an Ostrich farm in the North of Western Australia, it was a "non hatcher" and so still full of very smelly egg that I had to remove- trust me, an ostrich egg is a lot of omelette!!  It somehow makes the finished product seem more refined, having come so far from it's original state. 

I cut the doors and windows with a Dremel high speed cutter, one of my favourite tools, I use it for all sorts of things around the house as well as craft. You do have to be very careful when cutting egg, using a face mask and good ventilation/extraction.



The horses are plastic ones from a farm set, I painted and sealed them with the same paint I painted the carriage with.  One of the things that took the longest with this egg was attaching all the chains to the horses, I was fiddling with chain everywhere,in front of TV, after dinner, even in the car on the way to jobs in the country -we were installing swimming pools at that time, and sometimes went 300 or 400 kms into the country to do them which gives you plenty of time for crafting or reading, though this "fiddly" work was a bit of a challenge on some of the corrugated roads we travelled on!
The wheels are bought as one piece, they are available in a "vertical" format as well, I have seen an egg done like a cinderella coach using that format and it looked really good.  The seat inside the carriage is a polystyrene ball cut to shape, covered with fabric with pins pushed in to give the quilted effect.  
There is even a chandelier inside made from a Swarovski bead, the rhinestone chain around the doors and windows is also from Swarovski.  

The board the horse and carriage is mounted on is Jarrah, our lovely native hardwood.  The plaque, which you can't really see in these photos says "The Dorrington Express", as "Dorrington" is my father's name! Some of the photos are not great quality, as my youngest son (who is a professional photographer) points out, but you get the idea...and it means I have them available to post now :)