A New Die to Play With!

Right before I left on my yearly creative vacation I got a new Sizzix die called Candy Drawer. I had seen some projects I loved made with it and could hardly wait to play with it. The only thing I did before I left was cut one from chipboard and glue it together. It is a little open box with a "sleeve" so the box slides in and out like a drawer. I did determine it is meant for chipboard and using it with cardstock did not work as the sleeve was WAY too big. Did spend some time figuring out the right dimensions to cut and score a sleeve that fit the cardstock box so at least I have options.

The projects I had admired were little sets of the drawers where they had glued together various numbers of them to make little chests, adding chipboard to surround the drawer sleeves to finish them off and make them more sturdy. I had a lot to do this week after I returned home but couldn't resist cutting four little sets and gluing them together. I painted them black with acrylic paint and then adhered some kraft/black print cardstock to the drawer fronts and to the sides and back.  Chipboard on the back and around the outside edges would have made it sturdier but I wanted to get it done quickly. For handles I took some wooden beads from my stash and used Distress ink to darken them. I couldn't figure out how to darken the inside and then grabbed a brown Copic marker and colored inside them. I like the way it looks but I need to decorate it a little more. Mostly I want to make a much bigger one and I think next time I might not paint it. I do have a piece of black mat board with a black core that might be just the raw material for drawer set number two.

Finally Thinking BLOG Again!

Well, I see it has been almost a year since I posted to this blog. Does that mean I haven't done anything in all that time? No, just not sure why I haven't posted anything but a creative "escape" with my sister last week made me realize that I was not taking time to be creative and I vowed to do more things that I wanted to do and to go back to posting on my blog.

The first thing I want to share is actually something I did some months ago. It is a terrible picture as it doesn't show that it is a box shaped like a book that I made from mat board. Basically it was an open box that I attached a "book like" cover around and used black ribbon for the closure. On the front of it I put some of that really old decorative metallic stuff with holes in it. I think what I had is a leftover from the 70's. I also put some chipboard letters and some chipboard die cuts on the front...the whole thing was covered with that thin metallic tape they use for ductwork. I used a stump to burnish around the dimensional things and then dabbed the surface with black acrylic paint, using my fingers to smear the paint and a damp cloth to remove paint where I wanted less. When all was dry I coated the entire thing with mat medium. I filled the box with some goodies and gave it to my great-niece, Rhiannon, last week.