WOYWW #582: Tim Holtz Curio Box

Two weeks flew by again since I last posted. I'm back today for with a project I completed on Monday. I've recently acquired the Tim Holtz Curio Box die and I had to try it! I'd known about this die for a while but I managed to convince myself that I didn't need it, until I'd watched this video that shows you how to make different size boxes with the same die - what can I say, I was sold!

The photo of my desk for WOYWW shows the aftermath of this project though the mess is an accumulative effect of my previous projects for the past few months - I can't even remember the last time I cleared my desk - not since the new year, come to think of it!

Here are a few photos of my completed project: I used some poppy heads that I collected around the house, gilded them and put them in a small glass bottle filled with acrylic gems to keep them in place. The inside of the box was decorated with the blue/gold gelli prints you can still see lying around on my desk, and the outside was textured with some dry-wall tape and paints/gold gilding wax applied on top. Some decorative elements completed the picture: metal corners, crocheted ribbon and a paper flower I found in my stash.

Some of you were missing Oreo from my blog in previous weeks, so here are a few photos of him to make up for his absence (notice the funny way he sits on the fence - he always does that!). 

Then here he is in his favourite position sprawled out on my son's desk while he's playing computer games - the best of buds these two! 

And finally a close up of him looking rather domineering, which he is, of course.

Thank you for visiting - I'll be around soon! Happy WOYWW! xx

WOYWW #580: Blogiversary, Tiny Book and Die-cut Petals

I wanted to link up two weeks ago and again last week - I even had my photos prepared - but just didn't have the time, so I'm writing this well in advance for the nice "round" #580 of WOYWW aka Julia's long standing desk hop, now in its twelfth year! Incidentally, it was my 6th blogiversary earlier this month and as it's customary, I've made a collage of my favourite projects this past year, many of which you probably still remember.

My desk has seen some action in the past two weeks as well. I've made another Tiny Book with the Eileen Hull die (which is not that tiny after all!) and I also got the matching book case die from Craft Stash. I didn't really need these dies but I figured it was my patriotic duty to help the British economy recover, so I'm just doing my bit, as I'm sure you all do too :) My desk actually shows a gelli printing session - it was the easiest way to put paint on my book case and I made some prints as well while I was at it. I covered the Tiny Book with fabric and used the gelli prints on the inside cover and sewed some tea-dyed papers inside. 

The Tiny Book is actually big enough to put something in it, so I've made a sample page featuring postage stamps and die cut rose petals. The petals actually cut very well - they're a bit fragile to work with but no more than tissue paper. I pressed them first for a couple of weeks and they cut just like paper.

And here's a real life petal in a new hanging basket I acquired for the garden - just love that deep purple - hey, wasn't that the name of a band?!

We had this little garden visitor as well - this must be a good summer for hedgehogs as we've seen six of them in just the past three weeks, while none in the previous 3 years!

Thanks for visiting today - I'll be over soon. Look forward to catching up!

Happy #580!