GSL Cuts: angel of the fallen snow

December has been a busy month, preparing for Christmas with holiday decorating and shopping; trying to make everything extra special for the birth of baby Jesus.
My Christmas decorations have always included angels. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to create an angel with the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts santos doll that I can include in my displays. Recently, I was gifted a few found antlers, and this year much of my decor incorporates them among evergreens. This inspiration carried over and "angel of the fallen snow" was born.

I love working with the GSLC santos doll, this is the second one that I have made. The first, "bird lady," can be found here. The santos doll arrives flat. Carefully remove the pieces from the surround and wipe down the edges with a dry cloth. I like to do an initial assembly (without glue) to gather ideas. When I pre-assemble the santos doll, I check to make sure that whatever I will be locating within the caged skirt has adequate space and looks appropriately scaled.

Once I have settled on an idea, and have gathered my components, I dis-assemble the chipboard pieces and begin. To give the cage portion of the santos a natural woodsy feel, I begin by painting the base pieces with a layer of traditional burnt umber acrylic paint. Each piece is painted on both sides and allowed to dry. Next I dry-brush metallic brushed bronze paint onto the pieces to add highlights. While I have the brushed bronze paint out, the doll torso and arm pieces are painted on both sides and set aside to dry.

Once all of the paint has dried, I glue five of the six cage uprights into the base. I place the top circular flat piece onto the uprights without glue so that the pieces will attach at the right angle. One of the uprights is left out to facilitate adding the contents to the base. I glitter two dyed bottle brush tress and secure them onto the base with glue.

Next, I use a palette knife to add texture paste around the trees. I carefully mound some areas along the wooden tree bases to make the scene appear like drifted snow. The texture paste is coated with collage medium and sprinkled with distress mica flakes to create the natural drifted snow effect. Two glittered Ideaology deer are also added to the scene. The last upright is then glued into the base.

With the base scene in place, I begin to work on the doll. I add a narrow piece of crocheted lace around the edge of the top flat circle. This same lace is used to create a cuff detail around each wrist. These pieces are set aside to dry. The angel's halo is created with a large snowflake from the GSLC snowflake shape set. I carefully remove the snowflake and then coat one side with collage medium and sprinkle vintage platinum glitter dust to cover the entire snowflake. The second side is finished in this same manner. The glittered snowflake is then attached to the back of the doll's head with hot glue. The doll arms are secured together using jump rings allowing them to bend and pose.

With the crocheted lace edge secure, the top circle can be attached to the cage uprights with glue.

I begin to create her wings. Using a die, I cut the layered wings from multiple papers. Each layer is edged along the bottom with glue and glitter dust and then secured together. The back side of each wing has an added (mid size) layer of glittered paper. While the wings are drying, the doll torso is inserted into the slotted opening and glued in place. A larger width of crocheted lace serves as a shawl around the doll's shoulders. It is fastened in the front with a glittered snowflake from the snowflake shape set minis. Lastly, the angel wings are attached to the doll's back with hot glue.