***Wow, wow, wow!! Just wanted to say THANKS for all the blog love girls - You just made my last 24 hours very happy with all the nice things you had to say about my frame - thanks so much!!!***
I had actually pre-scheduled this post but had to pop in just to let you know how much I appreciated all the comments & that I'll be coming to visit you all later tonight - right now I am running around buying paint & brushes as it's Spring here (yay!!) and the house is getting a new slick of paint!
I decided to use the second pretty tag provided to me by Marivic, of
Berry 71 Bleu, to decorate this little box that I altered.
It started off bright orange & frankly {as you can imagine} I'd tired of it!
So I painted it dark brown, mixed with black, deep red & gold & love how it turned out.
No special effects really - just patiently painting on the coats with time to dry between each colour so as not to end up with a muddy mess, and dry brushing on the gold at the end.
I am entering this in the
trinket box challenge over at LESSOLOGY - a great new challenge blog dedicated to "doing more with less" co-founded by my great bloggy friend
Yvonne. So go & take a look there as you still have a week left to alter a little box & get it linked up :)
Marivic sells these tags from her Etsy store
here & everything is already added, so they are great for really snazzing up a project quickly & easily!
She sent me some extra matching buttons so I tucked those in underneath & around the tag here & there
& added a gold skeleton leaf & a Making Memories glittered frond & that was that - done!
It was actually SO EASY to do this project that I felt like a kinda lazy Guest Designer :)
so decided to make a concertina mini-album to put inside it to give my Mum-in-Law as a Christmas gift.
I'm not the most prolific mini-album maker - as you know - and for this one I actually made the entire album myself using dark brown Bazzill Cardstock.
I have no idea if I made it "correctly" as I designed it myself but it looks good & it functions so that's good enough for me!
I measured up the box & cut the card down so that, when folded, each square measures .5cm smaller than the box, so that it can be removed easily, otherwise it would have been to snug a fit.
I stapled that pull-tab between 2 layers of card so that the album concertinas out when you put your finger in there & pull.
Notwane (pronounced Not-waan - ee) is a place in Botswana, just outside of Gaberone, where we often go on vacation, with my DH's mum & step-dad, as they live in Gaberone.
Granny loves taking the kids for walks down to the river.
Chelsea was going through an "I'm too cool for river walking/teenage phase at the time so unfortunately doesn't feature in this album!
This is what the album looks like outside of the box. It is a chunky 2 inches thick so that it takes up all the depth of the box & fits A LOT of photos.
16 photos all together & all in the same series - it's times like these when a mini-album is just what's needed :)
I didn't want to add any dimension, so the album would close completely flat, so just added a few older Making Memories sentiment stickers & some basic grey doodly rub-ons.
I know that Granny will love this album as the river walks are a very special part of her day with her grand-kids when we are holidaying there.
I used some inks to distress the stickers a little as they were a bit stark to begin with.
That's a genuine sunflare there top left - NOT added in in Photoshop :)
Zaphira the cat comes too & is rather photogenic!
Just 2 years ago & the kids looked so LITTLE compared to now...
Supplies List:-
Box - repurposed
Tag - Berry 71 Bleu
Buttons - Berry 71 Bleu
Skeleton Leaf - LCS
Gold frond - Making Memories FaLaLa
Paints - Making Memories Asphalt, Chocolate & Red Wagon
Gold metallic powder - Barco
Modge Podge to seal - Mr. Hooks
Mini-Album
Bazzill Cardstock - dark brown
Gold metallic powder paint - Barco
Braid - Making Memories
Brown & burlap flower - Prima
Brad - stash
Alphas - Webster's Pages Storytellers
Rub-ons - Basic Grey
Staples
Inks - Color Box - Creamy Brown & Yellow Cadmium