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.
 

 

On one side is ULD’s pretty “Love” chipboard.

The little cherub I won in a drawing and metal key on the side are both from Reneabouquets!

 

And the finished product!
 

Thank you for taking time to stop by and view my Keepsake Box!

Products Used:

Unique Laser Designs Corner A and FlourishA (wood)

Love, from Live, Laugh, Love and Hope set (chipboard)

Folk Art acrylic paint in Rose Pink, Aqua Moiré and Forest Moss

Ranger Adirondack Pearl dabber

Gabrielle Pollacco’s Daisy Stamps (lattice)

Prima Clear Stamps #545055

Hero Arts Clear Stamps Special Time #2

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany

Prima 6x6 stencil, Ameruse Duchess Mix (H) flower

Diamond Stickles

Bo Bunny Frosting Jewels (pearl flourishes)

Graphic 45 Botanical Tea 12x12 paper collection

Artisan Elements circles

Tim Holtz metal corners

Reneabouquets cherub, butterflies and intricate metal key

Queen & Company baby blue rhinestones

New Product Announcement

"I love your designs....but wood is too thick..."      

 "Your embellishments are amazing, but I've never tried using wood..."    

"I'm just not sure I'd know how to use MDF..."

"I couldn't use wood on a card !"

These are some of the comments we frequently hear from people who see our products. 

In an attempt to help solve this conundrum, we chose to work with a group of talented designers, and nearly daily, projects are posted to help inspire you with all sorts of different ways that ULD products can be used...on just about every type of surface and in just about any way you could imagine...projects to show you that MDF isn't something to shy away from, but rather something so embrace !

Change can be scary, the thought of trying new things can seem daunting, stepping out of your comfort zone is overwhelming...  
So...in an attempt to give everyone the opportunity to have access to our amazing designs, and possibly "test the waters" and maybe try their hand at wood...we've decided to produce our designs in a more well known material that you'll be familiar with

...CHIPBOARD !

A tiny selection of whats available in chipboard

Due to the nature of some of our designs, not everything will be able to be cut from chipboard, but there is an enormous selection still to choose from.  

As a way to try and slowly show you that you can do the same things (often times with more successful results) by using MDF in your projects...I'll add a little special something to each chipboard order. ;)   I ask that you keep an open mind and use it.  I'm sure you'll soon realize that it is much better than you anticipated it would be !  :) 

Here are a few projects using our MDF products in places some wouldn't consider doing so.

Home Decor Items. Designed by Katy

Banner - Designed by Kisha.

Burlap Canvas.  Designed by Katy

Kids love ULD !  Designed by Samantha

ATC - Designed by Rachelle

Cards !  Designed by Kelly

Mini Album.  Designed by Kimberly

Scrapbook Layout.  Designed by Heidi

Gift Bag.  Designed by Kisha

Got Wheels? Get a Box!

Hello,
Today I am showing you another fabulous product by Unique Laser Designs that you may not of seen yet.  Take a look at this puzzle box.   I just love that you can easily connect it together after embellishing each side.  It is so much easier to decorate then working on a solid cube or block.

I decided to paint each side gold.   I plan to distress the edges and I wanted to colors to match the Tim Holtz paper I used. 

Here are the pieces before I got started.

You can piece it all together & paint or take it apart.

I used gold paint to cover each side.

I love the wheels from Tim Holtz.

 

Waiting for my wheels to secure.. even though I did use a few screws too.

 

Another favorite embellishment is the hinges from Tim Holtz.

 

I added a Tin Star & a Door Fixture on two of the sides.

I added one of the ULD mustaches as a layer to the Tim Holtz Ruler.

I love the variety of Gears from ULD. 

the top view.

Gears and wheels.. I added a vintage key and a key from TIm Holtz.

Although the inside is empty and I glued it all shut.. it is really interesting to look at and everyone that sees it has to push it to see if it really moves.. & YES it does.. It is a conversation piece in any room .. and if you Love Unique Laser Designs and Tim Holtz you can now see how well the two go together.  So if you have wheels.. you need to order a box.  The best part is all of the screws went through the wood sides with out any problems.. so those wheels are meant to last.. even though I did add extra adhesive.  I hope you enjoyed seeing another side of Unique Laser Designs.. I love that their is finally a hollow box that makes using all of our embellishments so much easier & fun. 

 

ULD Designer, Kimberly Congdon

Steampunk Pop-Up Box Card Tutorial

I had a card swap I needed to make a card for, and just couldn't think of what I wanted to do.  Finally, after scouring Pinterest looking for ideas, I stumbled across a steampunk board and it hit me !   I'm fortunate in that if I want something I can make it, but that's a good thing for you too, since if I make it, then it usually becomes available on my website.  :D

This is the end result, which I think turned out marvelous !  Since I didn't make the tutorial off this card, I decided to make another one, so lets see how the second one comes out. :)

Here we go...

First off, you need to decide what colors you want to use.  Three different colors are used in this card.  I chose black as the base for this card, for the outside panels I used a red glitter floral paper from a Recollections - Love Letter pad, the inside panels are black and grey floral from a DCWV "The Performance Stack" pad.  

You will need an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock for the main card piece, I chose black.
Along the short side, measure 5 1/2" and cut (keep this skinny strip as we use it later.)
Now, on the long side, we want to score the sheet in 4 places:  2 5/8", 5 1/4", 7 7/8" and 10 1/2".  From here, rotate the sheet 90 degrees and score at 3".  
Now, on the very skinny end, cut along the score lines on the 2 1/2" side and remove the little corner.  We also want to cut along the 3 score lines on the 2 1/2" side, but only up to the horizontal score line that goes all the way across the page - this is creating the top flaps on the box that open. 

So here you can see the top left corner cut out, the score lines and cuts on the top half score lines

You can go ahead and fold along all the score lines EXCEPT the big one on the left (do fold the skinny little piece.)  This section (my finger is on in the pic and the one above it) is the back bone of your card, and while we do add a little more to it to make it sturdier, it holds up better if you don't fold it down.

As you can see, all the flaps are folded open and down (except that back piece) and we have the box shape, although I haven't taped it closed just yet.

I wanted to make the back piece a little stronger, so I cut a strip from some spare black card stock I had laying around, 5 3/8" x 2 3/8".  Glue this piece to the back of the card, covering the entire back panel, adding strength.

Now we get to add some color !   I cut my pieces ahead so I'm ready to glue all at one time.

I started with the outer bottom panels, using my red glitter card stock.  (I opted for card over paper as it makes the card a little sturdier in general, but as long as your base card is fairly heavy, paper should work too.)

I cut 4 squares, all sized 2 3/8" x 2 3/4" and glued these to the outer lower panels.

For the inner top panels, I used the black and grey card stock.  All 4 squares are 2 3/8" x 2 3/8".  Glue to inside top panels.

You can now glue the card together to form the box (small tab glued to inside of large back piece.)

Now is when I start to play with the goodies I'm using to decorate the card with, in this case...GEARS !

I have a bunch of different natural chipboard gears in all shapes and sizes.  I decided which ones I wanted to use, and painted them an assortment of colors.  When it comes to painting, I'm all for quick and convenient when possible, so for many of my projects I opt for spray paint - there are some gorgeous colors these days !!  For this project, I used a mix of gold, silver, dark wood stain, hammertone pewter, and a little gold glitter spray.  I also LOVE Inka Gold Metalic Rubs, and used the copper on a few pieces, as well as some Tim Holtz tarnished bronze Distressed Paint.

While those dry, we can add the center pieces in the box.  
Get the strip that was cut off in the very beginning.  I score it in two places, 10 1/2" and 7 7/8".  Cut it so that the final piece looks the same on both sides:  skinny, big, skinny.  This is the piece that goes in the middle of the card, that we attach the gears to.  

We need two pieces, so go ahead and cut in half to create two like pieces (it doesn't have to be perfectly straight or exactly in half, just eyeball it.)  
When folding along the score lines, I fold the left one way and the right the other way...this makes it all lay flatter in the envelope.

We are going to divide the inside of the box into thirds, again, this doesn't need to be measured.  Glue the folded edges of the pieces we just made and attach inside the box.  You may need to play around to get the pieces mostly straight - I do this by folding the card closed and flat a few times and readjusting the dividers if needed.  

Now for the fun part !  Here are the goodies I painted (not all will be used in this card.)

This gives you an idea of how they can turn out.   

For the front divider, I glued several different color/shaped gears together and then glued this piece to the divider.    I placed our top hat set on the front flap, as well as a partial gear (regular gear cut in 1/4's, one piece was used.)  I used a random assortment of other gears on either of the side flaps, and a clock face, gear and another gear piece on the back panel.

Almost done !!  For the back divider, I used our angel wings, gears and pocket watch.  To give them a little lift, I glued them to chipboard strips (you could use just about anything here, just needs to be sturdy to hold up the pieces.)

Add your final pieces...and voila !