Decorated Mdf Storage Box

One of the things I really enjoy doing is decorating boxes, especially as they are really handy for keeping all your crafting accessories in afterwards and if you have any favourite rice or scrapbook papers that you have been sitting on because it pains you to use them, this is a good way to use and enjoy them afterwards too.

I gave my box a light coat of white gesso; it helps highlight the rice paper.  I usually buy my large boxes from The Works, as they are the ideal size for me, especially since I like to stack them. However, the quality of these boxes has been getting worse, and it is showing up in all their designs.

I chose these rice papers from Stamperia's Magic Forest collection, which I have had in my craft box for a while.  I particularly love this beautiful image, and I've also used the Earth Queen mould from this collection to make a shadow box frame, which I posted in an earlier blog post.

For the inside base of my box, I painted it with Finnabair Art Alchemy sparks paint in night shadow. 

I chose another rice paper from a different collection as a contrast for the inside lid of my box, and painted the edge of the lid in Miss Moneypenny from IndigoBlu.

In my box of clay and resin moulds, I found these, which I thought I could stick inside the lid after covering in wax.  I  already know what I will use my box for, so the moulds inside the lid will not compromise the contents, and as I like stacking my boxes, I try to keep outside decoration to a minimum.

I used Cadence Magic Satin Bond and seal not just to adhere the rice paper but as a top coat to seal my box.  It leaves a lovely, slightly satin finish to your projects.

My box has also been edged with gold wax

I don't keep many of the things I make, as I usually craft them for a specific occasion or occasionally on request. 

Boxes always come in handy, as you always tend to find or need something to store in them, and why not decorate them to personalise them to your choice. I just need to buy better quality boxes to decorate in the future.

Until I can get back to crafting again, I have the wildlife that come into my small wildlife friendly garden to make me smile. It's looking more on the 'wild side' this year as I haven't been able to do any maintenance in it.

When the neighbour's cat is shading itself behind the pond and waiting for all the small birds to appear, they don't all play nicely in the garden together

Thanks for stopping by today to view my little crafty space.

Have a great weekend, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenges

Try it on Tuesday - Make it Colourful

A Perfect time to craft - ATG

Mix it up -AG

The Outlaws -anything but a card

Crafts Galore - AG

Moving Along With the Times -Feminine

Creative Fingers -AG

Ally's Angels -AG

Earth Queen Shadow Box Frame

I'm really excited to be a guest for this month's challenge over at Creative Artiste Mixed media Challenge.  The theme is always anything goes with mixed media so decided that that my shadow box frame would be a good project to share with you all.

There is a lot that I really like about this Magic Forest collection from Stamperia and  in particular the Earth Queen mold. I am still quite a novice with mixed media and gradually building up my stash so tend to use whatever I have in my stash to compete my projects, with a bit of experimenting along the way.

I finally found a use for a 6 x 6 inch wood box frame that I had bought a few years ago and decided to make a paper mache textured base for my box using torn up tissue and pva glue. I then added lots of texture to resemble tree bark with a pokey tool. I thought this would give me  a more rustic base rather than texture paste and its cheaper too!

Once dry I planned to paint it first with black gesso and then with burnt sienna acrylic paint, leaving a hint of the black to show through.

I also experimented with colouring my air dry clay.  The closet colour that I had in my stash to a skintone ish colour was Pebeo studio acrylics paint in buff, and it worked out fine (although its not a great picture). This saved me having to worry about a streaky face and it did look a lot better when I added some highlighter blusher all over (that I no longer use) to add some tone.

Being a very slow crafter these days the painting of the Earth Queen mould was probably what took me the longest to finish purely because I use a very fine paintbrush as I find it easier to paint with less mistakes and do a section at a time. I also used burnt sienna acrylic paint for her hair too and LuminArte H20  watercolour paint in gold for her hair band.

I painted my leaves with Stamperia Allegro paint in avocado, adding a touch of  ocra acrylic mixed into the centres for more tone and then edged them with Art Alchemy antique brilliance lucky emerald wax. I love using wax, it really brings out the detail in your projects.

I used part of one of the rice papers from the Magic Forest collection on the base of the frame and used Art Alchemy rusty brown matt wax, a little antique gold wax and patina antiquing paste wax on the jewelled piece at the front to finish my frame off.

I have really enjoyed creating this shadow box frame and hope join the in the challenge this month too.  There are some amazing projects and inspiration over on the blog to follow too every month.

Have a fab week, whatever you have planned for yourself

Happy crafting