Greetings from Regions Beyond

Hi Everyone,

Jess here today with a wicked little vignette box.

Start by taking a wooden vignette box and layering it on top of your Mini Botanical Journaling Block.  The blocks come in a set of three, so you can play with different sizes.

Cut the house out of the Haunted House Oval.  Trim it down so it fits inside the vignette box.  Emboss the piece with Emerald Creek's Mercury Rising embossing powder.

Treat the outside of the box using Distress Oxide inks in Forest Moss, Hickory Smoke, and Ground Espresso. 

Add a crackle medium.  I really glopped it on so it looks chunky. Mixed with the Forest Moss Oxide ink the box looks a bit moldy.  Moldy is good at Halloween time!

Add paper to the back of the box and glue it in place.  Glue the house to the background.  Add fabric tape all around the edges of the shadowbox and set it aside. 

Use the largest of the Mini Botanical Journaling Blocks and cover the entire piece with gesso.

Add your sentiment cut from the Tim Holtz Halloween script, Christmas Script, and Holiday Words.  

Time to start adding Distress Crayon.     

Add crayon and move it around using your fingers.  

Cover the front using the same technique.  Add more saturated colors on the flowers and leaves. A bit of Distress Paint in Tarnished Brass gets smudged all around the edge of the block. 

Cut the bats and moon out of the Haunted House Oval.  Emboss the bats using the mercury rising powder.  Emboss the moon using Charred Gold.  

Glue the shadowbox to the center of the journaling block.  Add the bats to the front of the box.  Glue in a Tim Holtz tombstone with rub ons added.  Glue on the paperdoll.  Don't forget to give her a bouquet of dead flowers wrapped in mummy cloth. Cut a small slit around her hand and she appears to actually be holding the bouquet.

Make a bunch of tiny tattered florals and glue them in a cascade on the top of the vignette box.  A bit of leftover mummy cloth from the bouquet was put to good use up here.  A tiny skull bead aged with mushroom alcohol ink adds an element of surprise. 

Add a wooden finial that has been painted with Black Soot Distress Paint and a bit of Tarnished Brass. A bit of fabric tape that is around the edge of the box is wrapped around the finial.  Mummy cloth and a few more flowers complete the base. 

Here's the back of the Mini Botanical Journaling block all done up.

Happy Haunting!

Jess

Halloween Surprise!

Hi everyone,
Jess here today with  a tiny Matchbox Theater.

  I absolutely love how this turned out and I hope you do too.

The theater has two pieces, start with the exterior piece first (the box).
Paint all of the outside seams with Black Soot Distress Paint.  Cover the box with paper from the new Halloween Paper Pad from Tim Holtz.  Watch your cuts so you can line up the pattern.  Using your Xyron Sticker maker adhere all the paper to the box and glue it together.

Emboss two pieces from the Circle Doily Set.  The outer circle was embossed using Emerald Creek's Mercury Rising.  The inner circle used Candy Orange.  The candy orange is super bright, almost fluorescent, so I toned it down using Mushroom Alcohol ink.  

Cut out the kitty from the Halloween side order and attach her to the doily.  Attach the doily to the top of the matchbox. 

Now it's time to work on the interior. 

Paint the interior piece of the theater except for the back panel.  Cover the back panel with Halloween Paper.  

The rest of the interior box was stamped using the Web stamp from an older Tim set(CMS093) and emboss using Emerald Creeks Hammered Metal.  At this time you can glue your box together.

Stamp, color, and die cut your witch from the Michael's exclusive set.  

Create a wobbler for the witch head.  Using a 1/2 inch circle punch cut out two circles.  Wrap a thin gauge wire around a marker a few times and snip it so you have a tiny spring.  Tape the edge of the spring to one of the circles and repeat for the other side.   

Using strong adhesive attach your witch to the wobbler. Make sure the depth of the wobbler works.  You don't want the witch to get caught when you're trying to open the box.  I added some halloween rub ons to the front of the interior box. 

Check it out! 

She's so fun.

The interior box just slides inside the wrap and you're done!

Enjoy!! 

Jess

Giraffe's Gilly (aka circus wagon)

Hi everyone, Ann here today, sharing an inspired vintage circus wagon with you.
I was recently fortunate enough to see The Greatest Showman at the theatre. Wow, I was completely in awe of the incredible sets and costumes, and most amazing music. I found myself wondering how I could alter one of my Gypsy Soul Laser Cut boxes into a vintage circus wagon; as a multitude of fabulous visions from the film were playing through my head, I could not wait to get started.

I began with the ATC Shrine Box. This box arrives flat and contains five pieces. It is easiest to figure out how the pieces fit together before adhering paper or any adhesive. This box will form the cart portion of the wagon. The cart will sit on four 1" Wheels. 

Using a quick grab tacky glue, I assemble the box and set it aside. While it is drying, I consider papers for the exterior and interior of the piece that will be rich in color and convey the circus theme I have in mind. I select a red and white striped paper for the interior.  I cut an eight inch long strip of paper that equals the interior height of the box. I measure the interior of the box from left to right for depth and width and mark those measurements on the strip of paper. It is always best to measure twice and cut once, so I double check that I have the correct measurements and then cut the strip the appropriate length. I score the strip at 7/8" from each end to wrap the interior.

I envision a wagon that transports circus animals from city to city. This type of wagon requires a caged opening.  The front/caged side of the wagon will have a decorative opening for the cage to attach to. I first cut a piece of red Distress cardstock that covers the entire opening. Using a Tim Holtz Sizzix labels die, I center it where I would like the opening to be and run it through the die cutting machine. A modified Tim Holtz Gothic Gate die cut will create the cage. This cage piece is covered with embossing ink and coated with Emerald Creek charred gold embossing powder and heat set.

All of the remaining exterior sides of the box are painted with Distress Paint in fired brick and candied apple. Once the red coat has completely dried, I apply  Distress Paint in walnut stain and black soot with a stiff dry brush to create  a time worn patina.  This process is also used to paint the wheel housings. The interior ceiling of the wagon is painted with a coat of antique linen and the floor is painted with a mixture of antique linen and walnut stain. The floor will be covered later with a thin layer of straw pieces.

After the paint has completely dried, I adhere the paper to the interior. I add a metallic remnant rub in each upper corner. I resize a piece of Tim Holtz "traveler" ephemera, and add details with a gold gelly roll pen. This is inked around the edges and adhered to the back wall. Once the interior is complete, the caged panel frame is applied to the open face of the box. Ideology stars are added in each upper corner and a fussy cut CIRCUS banner is attached to the topmost center. 
When attaching the wheels to the wagon, I want the wheels to be situated apart from the housing. To do this I place a very small wooden bead between the wheel and the housing with hot glue. A brass nail serves as an axle to align and hold all the pieces together and another wooden bead is located on the inside of the housing. After assembling all four wheels and housings, I attach them to each side of the wagon.

The back side of the wagon is covered with circus posters. I searched for images of vintage circus signs and resized them to be a compatible scale for the wagon. Once they were printed, I cut them out, distressed the edges with ink, crumpled them, and rolled the corners to make them look authentic. I arranged the pieces to create a desirable layout and adhered them to the box.  I also added a pennant banner punched from Tim Holtz paper and strung on jute string.

 My wagon would not be complete without an occupant. I found wonderfully vintage circus giraffe and elephant images that I fussy cut. The giraffe stands inside his gilly, eager to arrive at the next destination.

Thanks so much for visiting the blog today,
I hope you experience something that inspires you to create.
~Ann

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts used:
ATC Shrine Box
Wheels 1 inch Fancy