WOYWW #490: Shadowbox from 12X12" paper

Hello on this lovely Wednesday morning! I was up early today and saw the day break - it was eerie and quite spectacular - a sliver of bright pink on the horizon while everything was still pitch black. Never seen anything like that before! Even though I was up bright and early, I've only just now got a chance to put this blog post together. So here goes...

I'm here for another edition of WOYWW. Today I would like to share a shadow frame I made from a single sheet of 12X12" paper. I made the frame a while ago but I wasn't sure how to decorate it. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right moment when inspiration strikes. This was the aftermath of my creative session:

I was going to use those diecuts embossed with gold on the frame, but somehow they  didn't work, so I left them off. I didn't want to cover up too much of that lovely crackle, anyway, so it's all for the best. Here's a VIDEO showing how to make a shadowbox frame from a single sheet of paper. 

I covered mine with book paper and gessoed it several times to make it more sturdy and then I added some Kroma crackle paste (which takes frustratingly long to dry) and then I added another layer of gesso. This is what my frame looked like at this stage:

First, I applied some distress oxide inks, but they didn't really work so I went over them with my trusted acrylic inks, which also made the colours permanent. 

After this, I added some copper wax to the inside and outside edges of the frame. I distressed some metal embellishments with gesso and paint and stuck a gemstone in the middle. For the inside of the frame, I printed one of my previously scanned Dreamer papers and gold embossed a script stamp on it. I also embossed the edges. 

This is what it looked like in the early morning sun. I love how the light bounces off the embossed and gilded parts. It definitely has a magical feel to it, in line with the winged unicorn. Perhaps it's a bit (uni)corny LOL - but I still like it!

That's it for today - I won't waffle on. Thanks so much for your visit. Some of my visitors reported problems with leaving comments from the home page, but I think it works from inside the blog post - it's just another G+ bug. It may get sorted, or it won't. You'll be glad to hear that Google is doing away with G+ next summer, which leaves the question hanging in the air: what's going to happen to G+ comments and G+ profiles on blogs? I'm hoping they will replace it with something more flexible so that people who are allergic to G+ will be able to use it as well. 

I won't be around next week, but I hope to be back in two weeks' time! xx