My Games of Thrones Dragon Treasure Box with Eileen Hull.

I have a fabulous project today, my Dragon Treasure Box! Wow I cannot believe it has been 2 months since my last blog post!!! There has been a lot of rough going in my family the last few months so my focus has been with them. Today however I am back with a vengeance with a March project for the Inspiration team that I love on many fronts!! The theme for the month is "Spring Things" & what says spring more than DRAGONS!!!! Using  one of the newest Eileen Hull dies that is currently available... drum roll... the Treasure Box. What better way to showcase a treasure box than Dragons? The timing is fairly perfect as well with the amazing Games of Thrones HBO series returning on April 14th for the final season. I know I am not the only one who CAN NOT WAIT.

While endlessly waiting I thought what fun it would be to create this Dragon Box. This will be a 2 part post as there is a lot going on! First up the box... my inspiration for this entire project came from the dragon I bought. It is designed to go in one of those fairy gardens, I may have found a much better use for it. The back drop is a painting my daughter did & the little figure reminds me of the Children of the Forest.

Let's Get Started!

Step 1: Die cut 2 sets using the Treasure Box die, out of mat board. Set the rectangular pieces (that have no tabs) aside, these will go on the inside of the lid & of the box. Cover the tabbed mat board pieces outside with stencils & paste. Do not put product on the tabs of the pieces. I used Paper Texture by Prima as it gives a rough, gritty stone look. I also created the lid at this time cutting a piece of mat board 5.25x3.25 this will completely cover the top of the box lid and was an idea by team mate Susie Bentz over on My Time To Play.  

This lid was also stenciled with the paste & the dragon piece was pushed into the paste while wet. This will adhere the dragon piece very strongly to the lid. Set everything aside to dry. The pieces may warp during this time but will flatten out when dry. While you are doing this make an extra test piece on a left over piece of mat board so color experimentation can be done.This paste takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours to dry depending on thickness. Let dry naturally. 

Adding Color Blends 2

Step 2: Once the paste is completely dry, it is time for color. I did not want to add a lot of wet medium to this project in order to keep the integrity of the mat board. Start with your test piece. Put a drop on Blends 2 in Flagstone (perfect name too) on your craft mat & add a small spritz of water.Caution a little ink goes a long way. Apply the paint with a brush pushing the color into the cracks between stones. This is where you can experiment with the colors to see what your final piece can be. I added some Bay to a part of it as well. Then added some Ebony to get the dark between the stones & wiped the color back to bring back the grey. I do love my test piece & will keep that with notes on the back to remember how it was done.

Eileen's new ColorBox Blends 2 are great for projects like this. They are highly pigmented with a longer dry time that allows for blending. Keep adding colors until you have reached your happy place. In the end I kept my bricks are quite light as I was thinking of snow & ice as well as stone. Good thing I did a test piece!

I also added the smallest touch of Bay to have a hint of the ice blue that we see in the show Games of Thrones. I just wanted the faintest shadow so wiping back the color with a paper towel helped to achieve that. The fact that these paints stay wet longer is a huge help in this respect. Also remember a little goes a long way so start with a touch and you can always add layers. 

Hot Tip: with the left over paint run a tag through it, waste not! With the drips left on the mat tap the tag on top of the drips to give added fun. 

Decorate The Inside

Step 3: Add paper or color to the inside. I chose to cut my paper pieces individually, adhere them, and distress the edges with the Flagstone Color Blend. You only need to color the fold & about a 1/4" of the tabs.

Another alternative is to adhere the paper first to the mat board & cut using the die. Just cut with the mat board side down, paper side up. That way the paper will score correctly. 

Step 4: Assemble the box. I like to use SuperTape from Therm*O*Web for any mat board project that needs a really strong glue. Simply follow the directions on the packaging for glue placement. Basically the tape goes on the tabs. Here is a picture of the top of the box ready for the lid piece to go on. 

Cover the inside mat board piece that had been set aside (cut with the die) with paper, put SuperTape on the tabs, slide it securely into the bottom of the box. I covered mine with a map of Westeros that shows the Houses locations. I printed this out from a digital image found online. This one happens to originate from HBO but I found it on the site i09. You can find this and some scrolls here. 

Winter Is Coming

Step 5: Yes, got the quote in and it is time for ice! Lucky for me I had some icicles that were perfect for my Treasure Box. They did need a little something, something & metallic foil was the perfect touch. Simply rub some DecoFoil Adhesive (my well used bottle) on the outside of the icicles and let dry until clear & tacky. Place the foil color side up and rub. I left some of the clear plastic show through. Add a little bit of the plaster, sparingly to look like snow on the ice. Adhere using a strong glue.

There were some gaps in my assembly job, so I also added some more plaster using a spatula, which looks fabulously like frozen snow. Ice blue glass shards were pushed into  the plaster again as a shoot out to the show. Finally a dragon eye was adhered to the bottom piece of the box, which adds a wonderful touch but also helps center the lid on the bottom. The lid is quite heavy and this adds some stability. 

Stay tuned for next month where I give you the secret of what is in the box. I will be using a die of Eileen's that is being released in April.Please go check out what my team mates are up to there have been some great projects over on Eileen Hull's blog. Until next time!

Supplies:

Eileen Hull dies by Sizzix- Treasure Box
ColorBlends & ColorBlends 2 by Clearsnap - Flagstone, Bay & Ebony
Mat Board by Sizzix
PaperPaste - Finnabair by Prima 
Foil Adhesive, Foil sheets & SuperTape -Therm*O*Web
Icicles - TimHoltz
Brick Paper-Bo Bunny