Black & White Box

I have at last painted this box which has been sitting on my desk for a few months!   Originally I wanted it to be blue to look like Wedgewood, but I couldn't find any suitable card in my stash, and as I needed to stamp and emboss, painting the MDF wouldn't really work.   So ..... I decided to paint it to match the little one I painted a while ago.

Basically the box was painted with black gesso, and then strips of black card were cut, and a pattern stamped (John Next Door stamp) with clear embossing powder, and then Cosmic shimmer white detail embossing powder applied.   The strips where then stuck onto the panels of the box.  The handle was painted white and finally the whole thing sprayed with Spray and Shine.

anther sneaky peak - work in progress

This is the flap of a little portable "notepad" that has pockets for pens/paints and paper, and a clip for the paper should one be out and about and want to do some drawing etc.

(That does sound a pretty vague description, but hopefully more will be revealed as I progress with the project.)

Having applied black gesso to the "notepad" I decided I wanted to try out some freebie stamps that came with a magazine - so decided to go down the white an black themed route.   I stamped with Nuvo clear and then applied Cosmic Shimmer White detail embossing powder.    I also added a few squiggles and words with a Versamark pen.   I felt it needed a littl extra colour to define some of the images, so I used some glitter Posca pens and coloured in a few bits

Butterfly Card and experimenting

I seemed to have lost my moo yesterday.  The weather was very grey, and at this time of year I tend to be a bit down as my Wedding Anniversary is in a few days, and I miss my husband most then.  However I knew I had a card to make ..... but I had a little play anyway.

This DaliART butterfly stamps were in the front of my stamp box , so I thought I would use that.   I also have some John Next Door Media Plates (sort of gelli plates), which I had only played with in my art journal - so one of those  came out as well.

I placed the media plate on my stamping platform and inked it with a brayer and Izink Sky blue pigment ink.  I then took one of the little butterflies from the collection and stamped it into the ink on the media plate to remove the colour.  The result was a border with butterflies.  I then applied clear embossing powder and heated this up.

I then stamped the large butterfly with black Nuvo ink (again using the stamping platform - where would we be without this - it makes life so much easier).

As I was watching a demo on Spectrum Noir Metallic Pens, I decided to get mine out and colour the butterfly with them.  I can see from the photo that my colouring is not what it used to be.   I do struggle to see to do this nowadays (roll on the new glasses next month).   Tiz a shame as I love colouring.  However, although the colouring looks dodgy in the photo, it looks ok on the card - or at least I think so!

I did a few highlights with a fine white Gelly Roll pen, and then when the image was dry I damped it with a wet paintbrush and applied some more clear embossing powder.  (This was a bit of an experiment as although I have done this before on MDF with Ultra Thick Embossing powder, I had never done it with fine detail powder - Thankfully it worked!)

I still wasn't quite happy with the effect so I edged around the blue frame with a little Nuvo glue and sprinkled on some Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels - yes I liked that.  However, as you can see from the picture of the card (below) before I got to colouring it - I hadn't quite got the frame centred on the card.   Undaunted I got out my picot edge dies from Clarity Stamp, and cut the whole thing out, and edged the pico with more of the Sky Blue Ink.

Happy at last I then mounted it on a new card - and there you have it - the finished card (above)..

The start of the card, and the dodgy alignment of the square boarder!
(you can just abo9ut see the reflection of the embossing)

I created an insert in Craft Artist - with just a simple message in it saying "Fluttering by to wish you a very Happy Birthday.

Small Trinket Box

box and lid

another view with lid resting on top of box

I introduced you to a couple of Windsor Trinket boxes the other week, as work in progress: and I have now finished painting the half windsor - a lovely little twelve-sided box.   (The maker is Candy Box Crafts and it is first time I have made up one of their items.  Instructions are very basic but easy to follow.  The lid design makes for a perfect fit).

The detail on the side is created by stamping on black card with a John-next-door stamp with Nuvo clear, and then embossing with Cosmic Shimmer True White embossing powder.   The rest of the box was painted with Hobbycraft Mars Black acrylic paint, with Titanium White for the handle.  (I had originally planned to painted the box gold and use gold embossing powder, but I didn't like any of my gold powders, so, I decided to go with a faux black and white wedgewood look.

I am now trying to decide whether to do the large box in the same style or go with a different colour with painted detail on it.  I am leaning toward the latter.