Art Break - Fascinator for B

B really wants a fascinator, so I offered to make her one.

Her favourite colour is purple, so that will be our starting point.
Instead of the basic 'feathers and flowers' form, I wanted to take it a step further and make it a 'Nature' themed facinator!

I got fake flowers, a headband, a foam bird, and feathers from the shops today.

And I ordered some fake berries online.

Our bird isn't purple to begin with, but we can change that with some gently applied acrylic paint.

At the start.

Add some lilac paint.

And some violet!

To make some ribbon shapes, I was trying to set it with watered down glue.

But I didn't like the results.

So I glued some florist wire to some fresh ribbon.

I also glued a ring of ribbon to the headband, to make a base for our decorations.

With our florist wire attached, I shaped the ribbon and glued it.

I wanted a dramatic heart shape.

I then attached it to the head band.

I started working on a nest made of feathers.

It will make sense soon!

I then attached the bird and nest to the headband. You can start to see it come together now.

I got some styrofoam eggs.

Painted them light purple.

Then added some dark purple spots.

I then glued them into the nest.

I added flowers and berries around the nest.

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Art break - Glowing ember for B

During a camping trip, B expressed a love of glowing embers and a desire to hold one. Clearly that is a terrible idea... so why not make him and glowing ember he CAN hold?

I took a flickering orange LED circuit out of a LED candle and covered the switch and battery compartment with cling film. This was to protect it from any moisture from the paint and modelling paste. 
The LED and wires on top were protected when I attached a covering made from a plastic drink bottle.

Next, I used layers of modelling paste to hide seams and make it look more coal-like. I left some of the drink bottle plastic uncovered by paste because we want some of that light to come through.

I then mixed some red-orange paint with a mattifying gel medium (embers don't have a sheen and it made the paint a bit more translucent) and placed this where light could shine through.

The next step was painting the rest of it black.

But an ember isn't so clean looking, so to improve realism I made some ash (I have a lot of incense and it creates a nice fine, predictable ash).

I stuck this ash on using more of the matt gel.

Finally, it had to be put in a suitable container for gifting. I used some aluminum foil to line the box to add some insulation XD It also emphasized the glow nicely. 

Final verdict: B loved it! He can now fulfill his wish safely.