Nicho

For a long time I have wanted to make a nicho that are so prevalent in Mexico.   My dear friend who moved to Mexico last year sent me some to experiment with.  I wanted to finish one up to return to her for Christmas; however, I didn't get it finished until the day after Christmas so it turned out as a Happy New Year package.

I added foil to the metal nicho and lined the niche with the same foil.  Then I added alcohol inks in colors that I thought would go well in her studio, using blue for the birds.  I merely sponged on some inks and played around until I liked the results.  When Donna sent me the nichos she included a match box with the picture of the Virgin Guadalupe so I cut the box apart and used this photo for the inside of the niche.  I poored one layer of Ice Resin, set in the photo and when dry poored in a second layer and set in the tiny beads to cover the edges.  

To finish off the outside panels and to hide some of the seams of the foil tape, I applied some German scrap.  The top triangle piece was red which wouldn't match the other colors so I took some alcohol cotton balls swiped the piece changing it from red to silver.  For the filagree pieces on the side that were gold, I did the same thing making them appear more silver.  To pull all of the colors together, I used my Krylon gold leafing pen and colored the metal around the niche box, added a few rhinestones and I considered it finished.