Dreamees - By The Fire MDF set

I have been meaning to make this mdf set up for ages and this time I actually have it done in time for Christmas. I really enjoyed putting this all together.

I decided to paint my mdf with a matchpot as I really liked the colour and thought it was the perfect fireplace surround colour. I wasn't sure at the time as to whether I was going to stamp onto my mdf using the matching Dreamees By the fire stamp set or leave some of it painted, so painted it all as it would give the mdf a good base anyway.  This matchpot was one of the colours I bought cheap at Homebase (probably as they were discontinuing the colour) and it covered the mdf effortlessly
I like to paint my mdf with a sponge as  I find you sometimes get stray hairs from the brush and streaks, depending on the paint you use.

I printed off the paper I wanted from The Dreamees Textures cd.

I wanted a mantlepiece for my fireplace, so drew around the mdf base plate onto greyboard (if you don't have greyboard, save the back of your notepads as its more or less the same thing, just a little thinner.  I then cut some coordinating paper to match the fireplace and covered the greyboard on both sides.

I used Cosmic Shimmer glue to stick the paper to my mdf as its a good tacky pva based glue and edged them with my Dinky Inkies to soften the edges. I left the back plate of the fireplace painted.

It needed logs for the hearth, so made these out of some Kanban Kandi Core card stock that I still had lying around and as it had a wood grain, I thought it would do nicely. I rolled strips of card around a broken paintbrush ( I was going to throw it away but it has come in very handy) but a skewer or anything that shape will suffice.

I thought that they turned out really well and used my glue gun to stick them on.

Just to show you what the mantlepiece looks like from a different angle. Just goes to show that you can add to it with a bit of imagination.  I know you probably won't see underneath normally but I do like things to look finished from every angle. These papers from the cd are so defined.

The little wooden objects on top of the mantlepiece are actually a set of 12 little tree decorations from Poundland. I just cut the strings off.  The tree lights I had bought previously with the intention of putting on this fireplace when I made it.

http://www.dreamees.org.uk/

Hope you have found this inspirational.

Happy Crafting