Beachy and Botanical Altered Cigar Box

I wanted something special to hold the earring and bracelet sets I shared in my previous post.

Not long ago, Mr. Chocolate came home with several empty cigar boxes for me ( and came home with MORE again this week!)  I grabbed one of them and got to work.

For this project you will need:

• Cigar or wood box to alter
• Paint ( I used Ceramcoat Paradise and Martha Stewart Wedding Cake)
• Decorative papers (I used a piece of scrapbook paper and some washi paper I collect but rarely ever use)
• Embellishments (I used botanical rub ons by K&Co, postage themed tag stickers, self adhesive copper frame, and coordinating washi tape)
• Mod Podge
• Clear drying dimensional glue

I started by painting the edges of my box with the beachy blue ( Paradise). I didn't sand or remove any of the paper that's on top of the wood. I liked the texture. Just painted right over it.

After that was dry, I dry brushed it with the white paint. I was going for a weathered beachy feel.

I measured my scrapbook paper ( top, bottom, and inside lid) and the washi paper ( sides) and then applied them to the box with Mod Podge. Added scraps of the washi paper to the corners of the top and then added the postal tag stickers and botanical rub-ons.

For the focal point of my box, I used the brochure from the hotel owned by the recipients. Placed an adhesive copper frame over the section I wanted to feature and added some super glue to get it really good and stuck. Trimmed using an XActo knife and filled with clear dimensional adhesive to give it a 3-D  look.

Ooops I got a bubble in there but oh well. If you catch those before your glue is dry, you can pop them with a pin. Once the glue was dry, I superglued it to the top of the box.

I finished up the box by applying the same scrapbook paper to the inside of the lid, added more washi tape and a couple more of the rub ons.

The owners of the hotel are avid gardeners so I thought beachy and  botanical worked out.

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Create Craft Love Keep Calm and Link Up #36

Thank You For Being A Friend: Earring and Bracelet Sets

So here's the story behind this post. Several years ago, my husband's parents retired to a small town on the Washington coast. To say it's remote is an understatement, but that's where they wanted to be. They quickly settled in and made tons of new friends. A few years after they moved, my father in law's brother joined them and he became part of their bunch. I've never seen retired people keep so busy with so many clubs and activities.


Since we started going to visit them, we've always gone to brunch at a local historic hotel owned by a sweet couple who decided they'd had enough of city life. They've been great friends to my in-laws and present for happy occasions and sad ones like when my mother-in-law passed away.

We recently celebrated my Uncle-in law's 80th birthday and they were no less gracious when we went to brunch at the hotel. They have some equally warm and funny ladies who work there and we have lots of laughs with them . I decided I'd make these ladies some things to show our appreciation for always making our extended family feel so special. I made four sets of coordinating earrings and stretchy bracelets.

The first set is silver, white, grey and gold. Most of the beads and findings are Blue Moon Beads.

The second set is blues and berries, using dichroic glass beads along with faceted acrylic beads:

The third set is shades of toffee and purples with antique gold connectors:

And the last set is copper and amber using more of the copper toggle clasps from my birds nest pendant necklace:

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April Birthdays Continue: Cards in Yellow and Gray

I wasn't kidding about April being birthday month for me. Here are two more cards for April birthdays. These use papers from Teresa Collins, Cosmo Cricket, and Recollections.

On a personal note, today would have been my daddy's 76th birthday so Happy Birthday Daddy.
For the first card I used:

• 5x7 white card ( made mine from heavy cardstock)
• Cosmo Cricket yellow leaf paper
• Teresa Collins yellow and gray floral paper
• Silver paper
• Washi Tape
• Baker's Twine
• Charm

I trimmed the yellow leaf paper to 4.75x6.75 then trimmed the silver and floral papers to 4x6 and tore the edges of the floral paper. Wrapped coordinating baker's twine around this panel and tied a small silver charm to the middle.

Stamped the birthday candle and sentiment ( also Teresa Collins) using yellow inks on white paper scraps, trimmed w/ decorative edge scissors and mounted on paper scraps. Assembled card as show using foam dots to add the candle and sentiment panels. Dotted the candles with silver liquid pearls and added coordinating washi tape.

For the second card, construction was the same. This time I used the reverse side of the Teresa Collins paper , a washed yellow, with a damask print gray paper For the focal I used dimensional stickers by K&Co, and a coordinating piece of green washi tape to match the leaves. Finished with silver and white polka dotted washi tape.

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BFF Open House Link Party #99 and Carmex Giveaway WInner

Happy Friday Eve everyone and welcome to the first link party of April. I hope you all survived April Fool's Day...definitely not one of my favorite days especially since blogging because some of the "fake" ideas people share I think are actually legit!

The winner of the Carmex giveaway I held is : Allison ( #37 as selected by Rafflecopter). Allison has been notified. 

OK. let's start with some of the highlights from last week's party: 

This gorgeous creation was shared by Carolyn at homework. It's paper mache! Isn't it amazing?! What a great way to use up paper scraps too. 

Carolyn's bowl would look great atop this made over end table by Sherry at Pondered Primed Perfected. You really need to see the before pics. You won't believe it. Love this color combo! 

Debi, from Adorned from Above shared this chic pedestal cake plate. It is so fresh and perfect for Spring. Pop over for the tute on how she made it. 

And what better to put on a cake plate than cake pops? Especially chocolate cake pops? Especially especially these gorgeous cake pops from Karyn at Pint Sized Baker?

So now, let's see what all of you incredibly talented creative folks have been up to this week! If you're new to the party, say hi in the comments. A follow isn't required (but appreciated) and I love meeting new bloggers. 

April Seems To Be Birthday Month: Rose and Gold Birthday Card

I didn't realize exactly how many April birthdays were in my life until I did the logical thing and wrote them all down in one place.

This card has to travel across the ocean so to keep myself from having to take out a loan for postage, I tried to keep it pretty flat and light. A challenge for me since I love dimension and embellishments.

I gathered up the things I planned to use in my card, starting with computer generating the focal image and sentiment using my My Memories digital scrapbooking software.  Printed on white cardstock and trimmed to size.  My card was guided by the colors in this image so I chose papers from my stash to match.

I cut white cardstock to 5x7 card size, trimmed the rose paper to 4.75x6.75 and a white gold cardstock to 4.5x6.5. Ran the gold paper through my Cuttlebug to emboss it.

Mounted the panels as shown and added a scrap of the rose paper across the middle with a coordinating self adhesive scrapbooking sticker by K&Co. I may or may not hoard these. Just sayin'.

Mounted the focal image and sentiment as shown and finished off by adding drops of  liquid pearls ( bisque) to the butterflies and flowers.

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Spring Fever: Copper and Silver Chain and Bird's Nest Pendant

Maybe it's Spring fever or hearing all of the birds calling to each other. I was excited about my bird's nest Easter cards and had recently seen some wire bird's nest pendants somewhere and was drawn to them and wanted to try making one. As things often do with me, one thing led to another!

As you can see, I made more than one. For the "how-to" on the wire bird's nest pendant, I'll point you to You Tube which has tons of tutorials.  This post is more about what I did with one of the pendants I made.

Included in my Design Team supplies from Blue Moon Beads were these very cool copper leaf clasps. I loved them immediately but hadn't felt the right project for them until I started playing with the nests. What goes better with a bird's nest than leaves? I also had some antique silver and copper chain in my supplies.

I decided to use some of the clasps not as clasps, but as focal pieces in the necklace and joined them together with jump rings.  I did use a clasp as it was intended:

attaching lengths of  the copper and silver chain to it using copper jump rings.

I had some leftover chain ( necklace measures about 20 inches) so decided to make  a matching bracelet. Attached the chain to the leaf clasp, and then just added some of the beads from my nest and charms I had on hand.

The other nest pendant I made I just attached to a ribbon necklace using a silver bail , also by Blue Moon, and antiqued glass pearls for the eggs.

These little wire nests are very forgiving since like real nests, they are not meant to be perfect and they all have slightly different bends and twists. They're also very addicting!

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Disclosure: I am a member of the Blue Moon Beads design team and as such, receive supplies from them to use. Designs and opinions are my own.