A Touch Of Gold With Some Flowers. . . . . . .

I have to say that I LOVE embossing powder or enamel! If it's gold I love it even more and I'm always looking for places to use it. I have to stop myself reaching for it because otherwise everything I make would feature some!

Another thing you've probably noticed is that I like to make little grungy flowers - not the beautiful multi - petalled ones that lots of you clever people make but the simple, two or three layered ones that suit my lack of flower making skills best!

I love using sprays and inks combined with stamping to make my own backgrounds too.

I love using die cuts in different ways on my projects too. . . . . . so where is all this 'love to do' leading you ask? Well, at Simon Says this week the challenge is to make something using your favourite technique and I tried, I really did, to narrow it down to one but it's impossible!! Perhaps if I said top of the list at the moment is to make my little flowers then that's probably true but at least two of the other things I've mentioned need to be there too. . . . . . . !

The challenge at Sunday Stampers (which I might just make!) is to make something Shiny - I do hope Hels thinks the enamel, perfect pearls and gold leaf coloured paste fits into this theme as I'm going to share  my work with her talented followers.

The challenge at The Stampman is Precious Metals/Medals - Olympics - Gold/ Silver/ Bronze so I'm entering my work in their challenge too.

OK, down to what I've actually been up and to and really LOVED making: my Sister Sandie gave me a little wooden box which had originally contained decorations - being a lover of all things second hand AND free, I grabbed it quick before she changed her mind!

Here's what I made with the unloved little box:

The box was painted with Claudine Hellmuth's gesso and all visible edges were coated with gold leaf paste.
Eventually, the inside of the box, not covered with home-made background card, was painted with good quality gold acrylic.

The top of the box - not sure why it looks curved as it is completely flat! All the background card used was made by using a combination of dylusion inks, perfect pearls and distress inks. Simple script was stamped using a toning chalky ink and all cut edges were inked with Walnut distress ink.

The lid slides open to reveal the interior: the base is another piece of my background card, made as described above and the 'walls' are painted but you can't see how much they glisten here due to the light and angle.

The scrolls across the lid are die cut and then given two coats of Aged Gold embossing enamel - I love this stuff because it's quite chunky and has the little black flecks which give it that grungy, aged look. You can also see evidence of the 'Forever Green' Perfect Pearls which was scattered over the wet inks.

Slightly blurred - sorry! The flowers are die cut and punched from the same background card as used elsewhere but not all the layers have been stamped. Each layer was then inked with walnut distress and some random gold pen was applied before they were spritzed, shaped and assembled.

On the internal base of the box, the same die cut as seen on the lid was cut from my card and attached for extra interest.

Here you can see the edges not covered with card are all coated with the gold leaf paste to give a quality finish. The random inking of the card pieces shows up beautifully here - how I love using dylusion ink sprays!!

Hope you like my little box - I've become quite attached to it so I hope my Sister doesn't ask for it back!! I really do appreciate how many of you pop over and see my work and then take time to leave a comment - it's much appreciated and if I can find you again, I will always pay a return visit.