The Conservatory

 I wanted to make this about 3 or 4 years ago when I ran across the digitals on etsy. It's a conservatory by Laura Carson and the digital prints are drop dead gorgeous just like all her stuff is. I came to a sudden stop on this because I realized it was only ATC size. That's 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" and I don't like to work on journal type books that size.

So I just put it on a back burner until now. But I ran across my digital files on it and decided it was too beautiful not to make. I couldn't find the cutouts in a larger size so I just decided to make my own page shapes and enlarge the sheets. I drew them freehand and cut them out of recycled cereal boxes.

I found that my printer has a poster feature that will let me enlarge it to 2 x 2 size which turns out to be around 5 x 7" when all four sheets are printed. Yes, I had to do some piecing together of some items but that's O.K. I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to junk and scrappy journals.

I also used the best quality print paper for photos and presentations and the highest quality ink setting I have on my printer. They turned out pretty sharp at 300 dpi when I imported them into the Gimp first where I could work with them.

I already had some transparency film but it had yellowed over the years as I don't do very much with it. But I found a full box of transparency film at the thrift store for only 3 bucks and it was pretty new. You really have to know how to work with it to get it to print but all I do is stick the starting strip onto regular printer paper with double sided tape so it will feed into my printer without sliding around. It works.

I printed out two of each "stained glass" window and glued them together so the colors would be brighter. I pretty much followed the original project except to make a few changes here and there. I put the fountain statue over the front door and added as many different paper and fabric leaves as I could think of.

I didn't have hinges so I made mine out of heavy card. I used what I had. I liked the short gate with the urn but all I had was a piece of lace and some sticks so I made my own. Then I spray painted it black and rubbed a black silver finish on it.

I had some metallic ribbon that I liked so I made a fence on the brick sun room with some of it. I also had some puffy sticker urns that I wanted to use and I filled them with reindeer moss all from the dollar store on a few boards.

 

I finished it off with a belly band to enclose it. It's a two to three day project for me and I'm already on to the next. But this project was so beautiful that it haunted me for years until I finally made it. As I personalized it, it became part of me. With all that stained glass it gave off a churchy solitude feel. It's a beautiful place to go to in a hectic world and isn't that a good enough reason to make something beautiful?

This is my fence after adding flowers to it. I loved this project.

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