Seahorse Trinket Box for Eileen Hull

Today I have a stunning seahorse trinket box as part of the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team. April showers bring May flowers & also lots of parties! The design team are playing with all things DIY spring party prep. I hope you go over to the blog & check out what my teammates have been up to. There are some amazing designers on this team!!

I decided to create this box that can be used for a beach wedding. My idea actually came from my son's high school graduation. I put out a bunch of project life cards & pens, letting his friends jot down a note or memory that they had of him. Some of the cards are hilarious, some silly, some shared a special memory. All together they are priceless. I thought this would be a great thing to do at a wedding... hence my project. 

I have a bit of a tutorial for you. HOT TIP: Before you start figure out what type of closure you want for the box. It may change the way you assemble your box (you will want to punch any holes before assembly) & if you should adhere the inside paper after to hide brads or screws. I do have to say this box is pretty amazing & very well designed. It fits together easily & looks very professional, if you follow the tricks for success. I decided I wanted my box to have a very mix media top but paper for the rest of the construction. Tip: Paper side down on the die will be the paper that shows on the outside of any scored piece.

For ease I cut a sample of the box out of green paper to use as a template. That allowed me to cut out the individual pieces, saving mat board, paper & adhesive. For example I wanted the blue pattern on the outside of my box. You will need 2 pieces of this cut as it makes up the rectangular base of the box. I cut 2 pieces of mat board slightly larger then my template. Adhere paper front & back using double sided adhesive. The blue paper went face down on my die. 

I use pieces of washi to hold the mat board in place on the die. To save some time I followed the same procedure & cut the spine piece. Place that beside 1 of the side pieces in the proper spot & run it through your Sizzix machine. For my 2nd run I made the 3x4 card & the 2nd side piece. You only want to cut 1 layer at a time but can cut multiple shapes. 

It worked! Using my templates I cut more paper/mat board/paper sandwiches. After cutting all the edges were distressed & a marker was used to color the white edges of the mat board.

1. This is the spine of the box, because a template was used it was possible to cut out a specific part of my scrap book paper. Cool seagulls!!

2.This is the bottom piece of the box, (simply remove the oval mover & shaper) which I decided looked better with the wood finish on top.

3. For the lid of my box, paper was adhered on only 1 side of the mat board. I cut another portion of the blue paper leaving the mover & shaper die in which cuts out a beautiful oval. This is going to be the inside of my lid as the outside is mixed media.

4. The inside bottom of my box. This piece hides the side piece's flaps & gives your box a nice spot for some pretty paper. I used a portion of the paper that has a compass, shells & ship. 

5. Here is the 2 side pieces assembled which make the base of the box.

* Tip: Use Therm*O*Web Supertape to adhere your box together it is just super strong.

 * I am going to make templates out of clear acetate so I can better position my pieces if I want a certain pattern (like the seagulls).

Time to assemble. 
1. Assemble base of box.
2. Adhere card in bottom of box.
3. Adhere left side of spine to bottom of box.
4. Adhere bottom of box. 
5. Adhere top of box to right side of spine.

This ships wheel brad was added to hold the top down with an elastic. It has been hard to open & close so I may change the brad to something else. 

The die cut "Moments" was added to the end of the box. I took some Project Life cards & added beach theme stamps. I also added in some Kaisercraft cards that totally matched the theme. For presentation these will be wrapped with a ribbon with a charm. I will also put the ribbon at the bottom of the cards to make it easier to pull them out of the box. 

Supplies:

• Eileen Hull dies by Sizzix- Trinket Box, Flower Arch & Words.
• Tim Holtz die by Sizzix- Garden Greens
• Matboard by Sizzix
• Double sided adhesive & Supertape by Therm*O*Web
• Paper for box by Stamperia
• Paper for cards by Becky Higgins for Project Life & Kaisercraft
• Stamps by Tim Holtz, Kaisercraft & Prima.
• Inks- Archival by Ranger

Thanks for joining me today, I will have a follow up post showing how I made the mixed media top of this Seahorse Trinket Box. Have a wonderful inky day!

Mixed Media Girl Art Journal Page with Rita Barakat

Hello Inky Friends, I am here today with a guest post for Rita Barakat. Rita is a mixed media artist that has her own line of products & I got to play with her "So you say you can't draw stencils". Rita has an etsy shop that has these stencils, stamps, her art on cards, pillows & much, much more!

This is my art journal project that was done in my Dylusions large journal. I have a tutorial over on Rita's blog with the easy steps I used to get this result. I have only drawn 2 faces to date and have little magic so far, in this regard. Drawing is on my list of things to do but for now I can use Rita's stencils and end up with this fun result! Thanks to Rita for letting me play with her stencils! I hope you have a chance to get inky today!!

Mix Media with the Color Wheel

Hello Mix Media Enthusiasts, today we are playing with complementary colors. This month the Mix Media Monthly challenge is all about the color wheel. I have to say I have actually really enjoyed this challenge. It is making me use colors I would not normally pair together, & stick with 2 or 3. I tend to use all the colors all the time!

For my 2nd project this month I went with a mini art journal page. I decided to go with complementary colors yellow & purple. This page is 3x4" & is part of my #the100dayproject which I will talk about in a future post. If you want to see my mini pages I am posting them in Instagram almost everyday.

I hope you hop over to Mix Media Monthly & join in the fun!! You can win a prize!!! As always there is lots of inspiration to be had from my very talented team mates! 

And the Winner is....

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my Topflight Stamps project. I hope you join my blog for more inspiration! 

The winner for the $10 coupon was... THE WORDS CRAFTER however she won on another blog & decided to most generously re-gift her winnings!!! Yay there is good in the world. So she asked me to choose another winner & that winner is....

SUE D

Please email me at scrapowl@gmail.com & to receive your prize! 

Thanks to everyone who joined in our hop. Have an inky day!

Mixed Media Monthly Organizer Book

Hello Inky Fans, I am here with a Mixed Media Monthly Organizer Book using the Passport Die by Eileen Hull. I want a book to carry with me when I go to the local scrapbook store that has a record of paint colors I own. I don't know about you but I am constantly buying the same colors and leaving the fun new ones behind! 

Here is my project for the month of April- wow time flies! I decided to use the Marabu Acrylic Mousse- Pastel Paste from last month. I wanted to see how it played with Dylusions Paints by Ranger. 

Here is the photo inspiration for this months challenge #47 as well as the explanation. I decided to go with split complement colors- so blue with the splits being yellow-orange & red-orange. 

I started by die-cutting my passport pieces using mat board, then scraping the paste through a stencil by RubberMoon. Once that was dry I spritzed the board using Dylusions Spray. 

I painted the raised portions with Dylusions paint & added some stencil work. In hind sight it probably would have been easier to tint the paste & apply it already colored. 

For the spine I added some stamping using paint. I also hit the high points of my stencil image in copper paint to add a little metallic look.

3 signatures were made using ruled paper. Each signature has a cover made with scrapbook paper. I can always add more paper as I build my lists.

I used hair elastics to hold the signatures. They work perfectly & are just the right color! Thanks for joining me today & I hope you join our challenge on Mix Media Monthly this month!