Hello Crafters..
Welcome to my page
today! Thank you all for your lovely comments on my “faux altered spool” and a
warm welcome to all my newest followers.
Today’s project is
special and very close to my heart…I have a long vision with it! Yes, it is an up
cycled altered project with a purpose , hopefully to last a long long time,
lol!
Without much
pulling on, here it is…
A “Memory” box that
I made for my daughter to house all her “little first things” from infant stage
to…
My daughter is 5yrs
and 6mns now and currently smitten by “Thumbelina” and “Barbie” and I guess
this is the age when we start to build up memories and would probably re call
it in our old age!
I too remember a
school act in grade 1 on “thumbelina” and I remember this song till date…
"Thumbelina sing,
Thumbelina dance..
Thumbelina What’s
the difference if you’re very small
When your heart is
full of LOVE
You’re 9 feet tall !! "
I could re call
this song after 35 yrs lol! Though I vaguely remember dancing and singing for
this, then! All these memories came flooding back when I started reading this
story book to my daughter last week…
Thank your stars
you can’t hear me sing!
And so my theme for
the memory box was frozen! A legacy that will pass on…Thank you “Thumbelina”.
I had this sturdy
cardboard box that once was a packaging to some branded bed sheet and pillow
cover set! My friend with a lot of hopes passed it on to me and thought I would be
the best person to bring life to it. The
moment I saw it, I knew it was going to stay with me for a very long time. It
is BIG and sturdy and has a lot of space to hold memories and more ....
It had a glossy
paper over it and so I din’t want to gesso it at first. I took out lots of
tissue paper from packaging and used gel medium to cover the entire box with it
and then gave 2 coats of gesso and my box was ready to take all my “ creative
abuse” lol!
I got a picture of
this lovely flower girl who reminded me of “thumbelina” and decided to make
her my focal point..
With the basic
decoupage technique in place, I started creating textures all around her with
Prima daisy stencil and crackle texture paste from paper Artsy. The entire lid
had flowers all over….
I started working
around the flower girl by sponging green
and lilac acrylic colors with a hint of brown. I covered the entire box with
these colors so the girl blends with the textured flowers! Does she???
I wanted the box to
age on its own and dint want to give it too much of a vintage look now it
self…I know you are giving a surprised look…yes, with great difficulty I kept
myself from the “vintage” look but not really!
You will see spots
of brown…I rubbed in brushed Pewter on all the cracks and the flower just started shining! Lavender and silver is such a lovely combo and I feel will be
cherished by my daughter even when she grows up.
I kept working on
the colors of the lid, till I got the desired look and decided .. NO 3D
embellishments…another surprise for you???
I wanted to keep
minimum on the top…because I plan to keep this and give it to her probably when
she turns 16 !! Long vision…lol!
Here comes the
“vintage” from me…I took some Kraft CS and then die the alphabets with
Spellbinders die. I cut 2 more from an old invite and layered them to give a
chipboard thickness to the alphabets. Some text stamping on all the die cuts
with Bo bunny stamps and Archival green ink and then I aged them with Walnut stain on the edges
.
This not being enough, I applied distress rock candy crackle paint and then brushed pewter on the cracks. Now they are ready to hit the box ! The ideology ornate label with
a little more aging with vintage photo and brushed pewter distress stain is the
perfect embellishment here with 2 little rose buds. That’s it for the lid!
The green burlap
ribbon bow accentuates the closure with a lovely wooden button from American
Crafts. I layerd it with another white button for added interest.
For the sides, colored some lace
fabric flowers with brushed Corduroy DI and layered 2 for each flower with a white flat back pebble as the center and had them stuck all around the box.
Some rhine stones in lilac and the sides are ready!
This is ”oh so
girlie” look but it was all for Thumbelina…you see!
And now the box
opens….
I have kept all the little things that I have collected from her infancy till now and hope to add
on till it accommodates, lol!
You can see her first booties and mittens, her
first shoe, her first denim skirt, ,her first book in school, her first story book, the ticket for the first movie we watched together, first biithday frock with the hair band and the list goes on..
The box inside has
been covered with some lovely papers from Re collections.
The inside flap has
a hand made photo frame made from Corrugated cardboard and I have given a white
washed look and some color splats to it. It has a lovely picture of me and her
on her “First” birthday! To its left I have a pocket with lots of empty tags which I plan
to fill up as years go by with messages and quotes . Some hand made flowers here
too and a jute twine bow completes the look.
And so the box is
sealed and will keep filling up with the years to come and if I am still
blogging around after 10 years, will keep you posted on the event of giving
this fully loaded box to my daughter!
That brings us to
the end of this memory tour and I am glad you stayed with me till here!
If you
like this project and have taken time to leave a comment, I want you to also re
call your first childhood memory and share it with me…would love to take you to
your past and re live those moments!
I had a great time
making this for my daughter and happy to know we share some “common likes” and
it has started with Thumbelina and let’s see how it grows with each stage of
her life!
I would love to
have this memory box enter the following challenges…
Scrapping 4 Fun –
AG with 3 embellishments ( flowers, bow and rhine stones)
Happy Crafting and
Re cycling
Hugs
