LIVE IN THE MOMENT

Hello Crafty peeps…

A warm welcome to all of you. I see some new followers whom I would like to thank and happy to be sharing a post after a break. Hope to keep the interest alive…

My tryst with empty packaging boxes is never ending and I am always exploring how they can be altered! It has reached such a point that I love to alter them and give as gifts too…of course not the empty ones! Today I share one such project where I have up cycled a Swarovski packaging box…you heard it right.

A box I don’t use any more cos the ring that was inside is in my finger now! I loved the box so much that I thought I will give it a face lift and gift something priceless to a dear friend.

I know this friend through blogging and we have been interacting for the past year and active on social media too. She has always been supportive and encouraging my re cycled crafting and is an amazing card maker herself. She recently came to India and though we could not meet, my gift reached her on time.

I wanted to try a new technique, something like a faux tile but without being glossy. This is a 3X3 inch box and perfect for experimentation…here we go with the process.

Step1-I cut out a 3x3 water color paper in white, divided it into 3 inch squares and created a little scenic background with DI. I blended in broken china on top . For the bottom, I blended in mustard seed and then moved on to peeled paint. I kept the center white. Next I flicked in some water droplets. Its crazy feeling to watch the little droplets react with the ink and lovely after effects!

Step2- I was waiting to use my new stamp set from Inkadinkado. I stamped in the lovely sunflower at an angle in the center and the little butterfly and dragon fly too. Next was to create more textures with stamping, and so I stamped some music notes here and there, some faux stitching and script stamping too. I also randomly applied some black embossing powder and heat set it for some fine texture!

Step3- With a water brush and DI, I colored the sunflower and the winged creatures and applied some micro beads as the flower center. The picture was slowly coming alive! As I was engrossed in the making there was just one thing that coming to mind, and I used thet as my focal sentiment. “LIVE IN THE MOMENT”….yes, very often we forget that!

Step4- The experiment begins now! With a heavy heart and not knowing how this is going to turn out, I cut the 3X3 piece into 1 inch cubes! I layered them on chipboard pieces (here again I used empty cereal box…I love them empty, lol)!

Then I inked the edges of all the cubes with archival black ink. It was little painful to see the picture cut to pieces, but once I layered tem back on the lid….. I breathed again! I looked better than before! I inked the edges on the lid with peeled paint and  stamped some little one liners all around.

Experiment success! It fit the lid perfectly and what a transformation to the Swarovski cox!

Is that it…do you think I would give her an empty box. No way, maybe not a “girls best friend” but something better!

And the box opens…..

Step5- I made some handmade jeweler with air drying clay and modge mold! I made butterflies in both sizes, waited for it to dry and painted them with metallic blue acrylic colors and then rubbed in Inka gold with my fingers to highlight the raised areas.

The trio of butterflies complimented the lovely scene on the lid and I tried to keep the same colors scheme here too. So some beads and jewellery findings and a black chord and this lovely neck and ear piece was ready! I even did a test run of this…wore it for an evening out to see how it takes to “real world”…success again! My friend, I hope you understand why I did this!

Step6- I did a mini tag with a flap in water color paper to hold this jewllery. Same colors blended with DI and water flicking and this time I stamped some Magenta and Hot off the Pres stamps. I made holes to hang the tiny butterflies and tied the neck piece around the tag.

Perfect…if not an original, it had to match the standards of the original content, lol! So I lovingly wrapped a silver net to hold all of this in place and a tiny handmade treasure was ready to leave.

Well that’s the story of a Swarovski box that went thru some cosmetic changes!

Do let me know if you liked my experiment. I had a blast making this, and more so the joy of giving this to my dear friend, Sathya.

I would like to enter my little treasure in the following challenges…

Sisterhoodof Crafters

–The bright colors especially the blue was an inspiration!

Die CuttingDivas- 3D projects

Kraft Zone- altered art with sentiment

CraftySentiments- Box Challenge

CraftStamper magazine – Take a stamp

Make MyMonday Challenge – something with F (faux tile, flowers, feet...the box has flat pebble feet too!)

Try It OnTuesday Challenge- Try something new (faux tile and handmade jewellery)

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Until my next creative journey,

Happy crafting and re cycling.

Cheers and remember to “LIVE IN THE MOMENT”.