Unique Laser Designs: Keepsake Box, By Elizabeth Pipkin

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Keepsake Box, By Elizabeth Pipkin

KEEPSAKE BOX

Hi again everyone! I’m here to share my last project as Guest Designer for Unique Laser Designs and I would like to say that it has been an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to use these great products and work with such a great team! For this project, I decided to make an ordinary wooden box into a keepsake box as a gift for my sister who is retiring from her job at the end of this year. I wanted it to be something special and I hope this fits the bill! I chose Unique Laser Design’s pretty Corner A, Flourish A and the word Love, from their Live, Laugh, Love and Hope set. The corners and flourish are wood and Love is chipboard.

I decided to keep the finish simple on these by just dabbing on Ranger Adirondack Pearl acrylic paint dabber. Then I used a Q-tip rubbed in Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany Distress Ink Pad and rubbed around all the edges.

Now, to begin on the box... I purchased it from our local craft store awhile back and after seeing a pretty keepsake box decorated by Gabrielle Pollacco, I decided to give it a try!

I painted it inside and out with Gesso.

Then, I randomly rubbed acrylic paint on all sides including the bottom with my finger.

I wasn’t too thrilled with how the paints didn’t blend in smoothly so I got my foam paint brush out, got it wet with water and ran it over the entire box. Then when it dried, to tone down the paint a bit, I used my Pearl dabber again, dragging it across all the colors.

Before moving on to the outside, I wanted the inside to be pretty also. I used papers from Graphic 45’s Botanical Tea collection cutting them to size, inking the edges with TH Victorian Velvet and gluing top and bottom in and then adding smaller images from the same collection. I also added some Diamond Stickles to the flowers and hummingbirds to shimmer it up a bit. The pretty butterfly is from Reneabouquets.com.

Now, back to the outside of the box… The next step is to randomly stamp images you want to use on your box. I used Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink. Now I have to say, this was way out of my comfort zone because I hardly ever use black ink for stamping, but after seeing it used so frequently among other artists and Gabrielle’s pretty box I decided to give it a try. I was pleased with the final result. Also, I’ve always been a stickler for precise stamping but am getting to where I really like the look of fading (or not a completed stamp).

I inked around all edges, inside and out with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink pad to give it an aged look and then I used my homemade texture paste with a Prima stencil.

I wanted to use an image from Graphic 45’s Botanical Tea paper on my box, so I cut it out with my Fiskars circle template and cutter, distressed the edge and inked with TH Vintage Photo and glued it to the top of the box. I then framed it with Artisan Elements circle and inked that in with Tim Holtz Black Soot.

I also decided to use Tim Holtz’s pretty metal corners to add elegance to the box.

Now for the embellishments! My beautiful ULD pieces, a Reneabouquets butterfly, a Prima flower, some cheesecloth, white berries, leaf ribbon, pearl flourishes and metal key. The blue butterfly I fussy cut from the G45 papers to match. I also used Diamond Stickles in the image.