Beautiful Bird: Altered Boxes
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Well its the fifth week of the “Calico Crafts” design team blog already and I am back with my third official project (not counting all the wee extras the team have been doing in our enthusiasm lol.)
We are leaving behind the theme of love and looking towards spring now… For me, the first thing I think of (even before new flowers and leaves) is nesting.. lovely wee birdies fluttering around in a frenzy gathering up nesting materials… I have a few nesting areas in my garden and the eves of my roof so I get to watch the whole process from start to finish, and then all the little ones are clinging to my bird feeders in the summer, all grown up.
So back to my project….
I bought a set of the wooden boxes, which I think are great value considering you get 4 in the set. I have split the set up and put the two smallest together for a matching pair of bird and bird egg themed boxes. I will start with the larger box then tell you about the smaller box.
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I used a sheet of 7 Gypsies paper from the conservatory range to cover the box in sections. I saved some of the details like the text and the eggs to cut out and layer on over the top in a collage style. I did this to make sure there were plenty of points of interest on all faces of the box.
Once the glue had dried I began to shade and distress the paper using Versamagic Chalk inks. I started by going around all the edges with the “Sea Breeze” shade. I let it blend quite far in to the paper, letting it spread for about an inch in from the edges. next i did the same (working around the edges) with the “gingerbread” shade, but I only let that blend in from the edge for maybe a centimeter (I am mixing my metric with my imperial here) So I can still see some of the sea breeze showing . The gingerbread shade adds a sort of rusty aged look. (if rubbed along the edge of torn paper it can give a nice scorched burned look too.). Lastly I used the “Jumbo Java” shade to lightly rub along the very edge, so that it only just shows up. The chalk inks have a really nice gentle soft look about them and blend beautifully. I hardly get a project done without using them at some point.
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Next came the rubber stamping along the sides of the box. I used the 7 gypsies stamps from the Lille range and just repeated the pattern slightly, using the three stars, the bird stamp and the word “Beautiful”. I added the rusty wire around the outside edges and made a rusty wire nest for the top of the box. Lastly I added a couple of rusty hearts; one inside the nest and one slipped in behind the wire at the front. This completed the first box.
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The smaller box was even less complicated… I coloured it completely with the “Sea Breeze” Versamagic chalk ink. then toned the edges the same way i did with the first box, using the “gingerbread shade” and the “jumbo java” shade. I stamped around the edges and on the lid with the same stamp set (7 Gypsies Lille) using a Memento inkpad in “Rich cocoa”. As a bolder statement, I stamped on the stars and the word in black stazon. Then using the same paper as on the large box, I cut out some eggs, glued them on and when the glue was dry i put glossy accents on them so they have a raised feel, I also did this to the word “beautiful”. When this had dried, i varnished the whole box to stop seal it and protect the chalk ink.
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Supplies used from Calico Crafts:
Wooden boxes HERE
7 Gypsies 12×12 scrapbook paper “Conservatory range” HERE
7 Gypsies rubber stamps “Lille” HERE
Rusty wire HERE
Rusty hearts HERE
Versamagic chalk inks HERE
Memento ink pad “Rich Cocoa” HERE
Stazon “jet black” HERE
Glossy Accents HERE
Craft glue HERE