MY TREASURE CHEST!

So this is what has been keeping me busy for the last month or so... I finally got up the courage to cut into my beloved Graphic 45 "Voyage Beneath the Sea" papers!
The box is wood ~ 6 in. W, 3.5 in. D, with a domed top. Supply list below ~
Click to biggify pix.

The first pic is looking straight down onto the top...

Straight at the front of the box...

Inside of the lid...

Into the bottom of the open box ~ this was a hard pic to get!

R side of box...

L side of box...

Thanks for looking!!!

Supply List ~

All the G45 papers are from the 8x8 pad of VBS
Hinges are from Tim Holtz Grunge board
"Rain" drops on top are from Doodlebug Designs
Stickles
All shells & sea life from stash, as are the chains on the L sides
TH elongated pearl
Drawer pull from Paper Studio
Faux abalone shells inside lid from CraftWarehouse (a local PNW chain)
Paints ~ both from DecoArts Metallics ~ Peacock Pearl & Rich Expresso
3 round flat washers (not seen) @ front of inside, from local Ace Hardware. They are stained with TH Alcohol Ink in Aqua, and used to counter balance the weight of the faux abalone in the lid!

Sept. DIVAs project

We had our Designing Divas meeting this last Monday, and it was my turn to provide the project. Alpha Stamps had featured something earlier this summer  they called "Bitch Boxes" ~ I thought they were adorable! So, from AS I ordered the cardboard boxes, the acrylic sheets for the front, and some wonderful complimentary papers. The boxes are 4 x 4, and 3/4 in deep.

Below is the first prototype I made ~ I took the saying from a magnet I've have for years.

Click to biggify...

Below is one I made just for myself...  You just KNOW I had to do an ocean theme one!!  The papers are from G45s "By the Sea"; shells & coral from stash.

I also made one for the gal that does my nails; unfortunately I gave it to her before I could take a picture...

Anyhoo ~ thanks for looking!

Botanical Tea House...

So this is one of the things that has been keeping me busy! Lots of lovely fussy cutting ~ It isn't quite finished, but I thought you would enjoy a peek ~ as always, click to enlarge for better pix. At our last meeting of the Designing Divas, LS had some blocks of left-over wood. I think most of the pieces were from a 2 x 4. I brought them home, sanded & gessoed them, then started playing... I already knew I wanted to use Graphic 45's beautiful Botanical Tea papers on them. The over-all dimensions of this piece are 8.75 x 6.75 inches. The embellies (frame, lock, key & window) are from Melissa Frances, grunged up a bit with Tim Holtz' Frayed Burlap Distress Stain. A lot of the other embellies are from stash. The cheapie pink plastic heart seen dangling behind the arch was a sidewalk find! The fence in the background is from a dear friend's die (Thanks, CS!)

Just the plain back. I was going to decorate it as well, but I got lazy!

The thatched roof is made from raffia. I still want to add a dangling charm under the 'roof' overhand, and maybe add some more flowers. Thanks for looking!

Darn Eblogger has stolen my paragraphs AGAIN!!! ***sigh***

JUST A COUPLE OF LITTLE THINGS...

I've been working on ~ click the pix to enlarge.

At our Artistic Souls meeting on Valentine's Day, one of our ladies had this little project for us. The heart itself is about 1.5 in wide/tall ~ I want to make more that are about triple that size. I would also like to play with different shapes, like circles and hexagons...

At the same meeting, one of the gang gave us little mini candy boxes... for this, I used the base, and the little brown plastic insert. I resized some good head shots of our 3 hooligans, mounted them on lots of foam tape, and stuck them back into the base.
It is still a WIP ~ I'll be adding dimensional flowers, and maybe another, bigger, heart behind the doily; I'll also add something to hang it from.

It was fun to make this little cute project from things that would have ordinarily been thrown away!

AT LONG LAST!!!

Yes ~ I have actually finished my Halloween altered cigar box! Yippee skippee do-si-do!!! And many thanks to Miz Debbie for the awesome Divas project! I used Graphic 45's "Steampunk Spells" paper line, in both the 12 X 12 and 8 x 8 sizes; also used the 6 x 6 Patterns & Solids papers. Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies goodies; ribbons, flower rosettes from stash. TONS of fussy cutting, and lots of foam dots.

The key to the apothecary ~

The back side ~ kept it simple.

Lots of fun danglies! It is hard to see them all, but there is a balloon, an owl, a tombstone, a Celtic tree of life, and a bat, among others...

Inside the front door...

The store ~ bottles filled with colored water, spices, baking soda and cotton ball wips. Gears from TH, Spare Parts and ArtChix Studios.

Thanks for looking! As always, click to enlarge the pix...

ARTISTIC SOULS CROWN ~

For our project last month, the delightful J. came up with the idea of birthday crowns for us. The base is heavy weight poster board; she cut out the points for us. The front panel is 10 inches tall, not including the peacock feather.

All the papers I used are from the Graphic 45 "Olde Curiousity Shoppe" line; there are some Tim Holtz embellies, and a few bits and bobs just from stash. I still have to come up with a better way to secure it in the back ~ it will either be with black ribbon or black elastic.

As always, click on the pix to enlarge...  and thanks for looking!

Below is the front panel up close ~ the time on the clock is 9:28 AM, which is when I born. The eyeglasses have 4 layers of Glossy Accents for the lenses, and the pharmacy 'chest'  and title are all popped up on foam dots. All the clock faces and bottles are accented with GA.

Right side panel...  the Acetanilid compound is the actual forefather of today's Tylenol!

Right back panel ~ the TH 'dangles' make a great sound when I move my head!

Left side panel ~ lots of fussy cutting! The little green feather at the top of shoe was dyed with TH's "Peeled Shutters" distress stain. (it is a little hard to see against the paper feather)

Left back panel ~ the pedestal and bottles are also up on pop dots, and accented with GA.

MMLL's TREASURE BOX!!!

I FINALLY finished the Treasure Box for my dear friend in New Zealand! And now I have her permission to post it ~ As usual, click to enlarge. The box itself is about 6 x 6 inches.

All the papers I used are from the Pink Paislee "Butterfly Garden" collection. I painted the whole box, inside & out, with 4 different colors that co-ordinated with the papers. The feet were brass jewelry findings ~ I spray painted them to get what I really wanted.

The "lace" on the top part was made with the Tim Holtz Decorative Strips die-cut using 'fuzzy' paper. The bottom is real lace from stash.

Silly me forgot to ink the edges of my papers!

Inside the lid ~ flowers & jewels by Prima. What appears to be a great black hole is actually a mirror!!

The top ~ the crochet, embroidered and other flower are from my stash. The leaves and arched frame are by Prima. It doesn't show up well, but I used Glossy Accents over the sprite image within the frame to make it look like a real picture. There is also GA on the flowers the sprite is holding out the right side of the frame.

Inside ~ the bottom is covered with more of the "fuzzy" paper. MMLL ~ I'm SO glad you like it! Thanks for looking ~ leave me some love!

A STEAMPUNK COFFIN

For the October meeting of the ASE, I brought little wooden coffins from the craft store to decorate. I did a plain one as the demo, but I also wanted to do one that was more 'jazzed' up. This is what I came up with... As usual, click to enlarge any image. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The papers are from Graphic 45's "Olde Curiosity Shoppe". First I sanded and painted the coffin with Metallic paint in Rich Expresso (DecorArt) It has a wonderful bronzy glimmer to it. Thanks to B for letting me use some of yours! Then I started applying the papers with ModPodge.

The left front side ~ the metal tag is from my favorite antique store in town. You can't really see it, but I used Glossy Accents to make the 'glasses'

Right front side ~ more fussy cutting from the papers. Again, each image is covered with GA; the eyes of the bug are colored with Stickles.

Left end, showing the wind-up key (Tim Holtz) and the coffin handle.

The back side, ~ the crystal knob on top is TH, the chipboard gear is from stash. I embossed it with a Verdegris embossing powder. You can also see the bit of black bling on the back of the skull.

The Guardian! He started out as a cheap little plastic skull; his eyes were filled with red Stickles, then GA. His hat is made from an old gear and some watch parts; the tassel is from TH.

The face plate is part of an old watch; think "The Borg" from StarTrek:The Next Generation!! The chipboard gear he rests on was painted with acrylic paint and high-lighted with Twinkling H2Os.

Inside the top ~ Lots of fussy-cutting around the top of the apothecary chest; GA used on some of the bottles. TH light bulb; various bits from stash & friends.

Inside the bottom ~ number plate from TH, as are the spinner parts (and yes, it actually spins). The butterfly is threaded into the top of a short metal coil; highlighted with Twinkling H2Os.

Just another view of the inside...

Thanks for looking ~ hope you enjoy!

HALLOWEEN DOMINO BOOK ~

This is the domino book I made for the Designing Divas Sept./Oct meetings ~ I'd been wanting to do a domino book for ages, so this was perfect for me. It hurts for me to type much right now, so I will come back and more info later. As always, click to enlarge ~ Front inside ~

Back inside ~

Front cover ~

Back cover ~

Side view ~

MAGNET BOARD

This is the magnet board I made at our ASE meeting last Friday ~ great project, M!!!   IRL, it is 7 x 5 in; the little clothes pin (bottom right) is also a magnet. It doesn't show in the picture, but the map is up on pop dots .

Happy crafting!

THE WIP IS NOW FINISHED!

This is the project we did at the DD meeting last week.

The bottle is about 4 inches tall ~ I covered most of it with simple cotton for the first layer. The second layer is strips from an old dictionary (from the 'machine' page), and strips from old music sheets.
The third layer is tissue paper transfers of vintage planes and the man is a transfer, also. (Many thanks to Debbie for the images!)

Tim Holtz embellies ~ and most all the papers were distressed with his Tea Stain ink...



Some stripped cardboard for texture (under "JOY") ~ TH diecut edging around the bottom (dark brown) ~ there is some around the neck, but it's tan, and hard to see under the ribbons & fibers...



Sides... washers from Ace!






The top ~ chipboard clock from stash; 'key' from Debbie.