Mad Hatter Tea Chest

Hello, it is Gloria with you and it is my turn again on the blog! I had a blast making this Mad Hatter Tea Chest using the GSLCuts Treasure Chest (check availability at the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Store).

I decorated this little chest all in purple and black! With a few red hearts! I added some purple flowers, plus the magical Alice in Wonderland Chipboard Silhouettes and the Tiny Alice Props.

The chest is 2 1/2" x 5 1/4" x 3 1/4" the way I have it assembled. It is perfect place to store some tea or coffee packets. (Or candy, for you non-tea drinkers!)

Let's get started making this project!

1. Remove the Treasure Chest pieces from the packaging and give them a good wipe with a damp cloth. (The laser cutting process generates a lot of soot!)

2. Spray the bottom of the chest, the lid "frame," and the thin pieces with black glitter mist. Allow to dry.

3. Cover the inside of the chest pieces with decorative paper. Use a gel medium (or similar product) to attach the paper to the chipboard. Sponge the edges with black ink.

4. Assemble the chest. Attach paper to the outside surfaces of the chest. Coat the outside surface of the box with gel medium to seal it. (You can see here that my gel is still wet. It will dry clear.) Spray the other side of the "frame" piece with black glitter mist and allow it to dry.

5. Glue the frame to the top of the box. (This is not how the box is to be assembled, but I decided that this is how I wanted it.) Cover both sides of the largest chipboard rectangle with paper. Glue the chest to the center of the piece.

6. Glue the thin pieces of chipboard around the top and bottom of the chest as shown. Trim thin pieces of decorative paper and sponge the edges with black ink.

7. Wrap the chipboard pieces with the decorative paper and glue securely.

8. Cover both sides of the larger lid piece with paper and sponge the edges with black ink. Mark the center of the smaller lid piece and make a hole for the knob. Cover both sides of the smaller piece with paper and sponge the edges with black ink.

9. Attach the knob to the smaller lid piece. Glue the smaller lid to the larger lid, making sure to center it.

10. Place the lid onto the chest.

11. Choose decorative chipboard shapes from the Alice in Wonderland Chipboard Silhouettes, Tiny Alice Props, and Alice String Alongs. Spray some of the pieces with black glimmer mist. Sponge others with purple or red ink.

12. Glue a selection of purple flowers to the left side of the lid. Add a few of the chipboard elements as shown.

13. Glue the White Rabbit and Mad Hatter silhouettes to the front of the box. Decorate them as desired. (In person, these are very sparkly! The camera had a hard time picking up the glitter!)

14. Fill your chest with tea and enjoy!

Thanks for looking!

~ Gloria:Scraps of Life

Supplies Used:

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts:
Treasure Chest (coming soon)
Alice in Wonderland Chipboard Silhouettes
Tiny Alice Props (coming soon)

Partner Products: Graphic 45: Hallowe'en in Wonder Land Deluxe Collector's Edition, Rare Oddities 6x6 pad

Other: spray mist (black, purple), ink (black, red, purple), paper flowers, metal knob, gel medium, glue, foam tape

Halloween in Wonderland Altered Altoids Tin

Hello, Friends!  It's Kathy Clement here, filling in with a little guest tutorial.  With the rapid approach of fall, my mind turns toward Halloween projects, how about you?  Well, today I have the cutest little Halloween in Wonderland altered Altoids Tin to share with you.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Isn't it fun?  I used two different Altoids inserts: Scalloped and Alice along with Tiny Alice Props chippies from Gypsy Soul.

I have a few process photos to share with you, and then lots and lots of pics to inspire you.

I began the process by aging my Altoids tin with Prima Rust pastes.  I found lots of online tutorials for this process, but basically, you just use a brush to tap the paste on, starting with the darkest color.  Let the layers dry before you add the next color.  I treated both the inside and the outside of the tin.

While my rust paste was drying, I painted all the inserts with black soot distress paint.  Paint both the front and the back.  You can see that I kind of cleaned my rust paste brushes off on some areas of the painted chippies.  I didn't want them to look too perfect.

I also used a white Sharpie pen to outline some of the shapes.  I tapped shades of blue Distress Paint onto the chips as well, just to add some texture.  Then I sponged over the ink with Black Distress Ink and a blender tool to knock the color back a little.

I traced each insert onto Halloween in Wonderland papers, trimmed them out and glued them to the back of the insert.  Easy, peasy!

I hot glued some purple trim and a border piece around the edges of the tin.  I tried using Glossy Accents but it would not stick to the rough texture of the rust paste.  Glue gun to the rescue!

I painted a selection of Tiny Alice Props with Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac Distress Paints.  The edges were inked with Black Soot DI.  I also used my White Sharpie pen to add a dot border around the inside edge of each insert.  I really like the way this helped define the shape as well as provided some pattern and contrast.  

I wanted my tin to look really old and battered so I distressed it even more by tapping it lightly with a craft hammer.  Then I rusted a Tim Holtz Idea-ology word band and glued it to the front edge of the tin.

I filled the inside of the tin with all the inserts.

I also painted some tiny mushroom chippies from the Tiny Alice Props and added them to the final card in the box.  I love the dimension this adds.

So that's all for me!  All these fun bits and pieces will be coming to Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts soon, so keep your eyes peeled!  They'll make spook-tacular Halloween decor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy