Hey, hey folks Tamiko here! It's been a few weeks since Christmas and I struggled to see the finish line for getting the last minute things I'd liked to just pass out for the holidays to friends and family. I kept delaying my project, thinking I needed to go to the craft store to buy some holiday paper/fabric. Nope.. procrastinating is all I was doing. I have a habit of collecting thin board and/or corrugated board. Just a small stock pile though. I took one of my boards and slipped into paper engineer hat and asked what did I see festive enough to create. I saw a tree and I also saw the making of a shadowbox within the tree shape. Let's try it. :::zooms forward ::: Check out what I made..
Items needed:
Helmars Craft & Hobby PVA Glue
Ribbon Trim (Tsunami Rose Etsy store)
Scissors
Box cutter (optional)
Acrylic Paint
Gouache
Watercolor paper
Markers
Glitter pens
Pen, pencil and eraser
Paper scraps
Digital Images (Vera Lane Studio Etsy store)
Paintbrush
Jar of water
I first took my board and quickly saw enough room to create two maybe three trees. The size of the trees are a matter of preference my trees are 10 inches tall and 7 inches wide. I did a rough cut, have you ever seen a perfect tree? Well you won't from me either! (ha-ha) I penciled in the rectangular shape towards the base of the tree. Once I cut it out, I use the piece scale against the shadow box I was creating to add. There are many ways to do this, but the easiest way that comes to me, is to take the cut out and factor in the side by adding an inch in thickness on all 4 sides.
With that inch of thickness, score it at the half inch mark, all the way around. The extra inch serves a side and a bit of a lip with our Helmar 450 Quick Dry glue, I can use to attach the the new box to the rectangular opening. Check out my photos below. Hopefully my photos will show you better then my words are if you are lost :::tiny grin:::
You will also see the previous step was the hardest part of the project and NOW all I needed to do is gather my Helmar adhesives and items to help me decorate my tree shadow box.
I recently bought some fabric/lace trim from my friend Daisy over at Tsunami Rose on Etsy. I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for, but I wanted to support her small business and use that trim for something!! (chuckles) I used the Helmar Fabric glue (even though I held the wrong bottle in the picture, ha) to fold and do bit of a cleaner ruffled finish... (thinking how cuuuuute.. I see some other things I can use this for indeed) I also used the clips to hold the fabric in place until it was dry enough to handle.
I took my finger and of course you can use a brush, I just didn't, and I lightly primed my board. Just the side I planned to paint and embellish. I truly did not wanna spend a extra dime on one bit of already made Christmas cardstock paper, not even for the purpose of fussy cutting small embellishments! This is where I took my watercolor paper and several gouache colors and painted simple round balls. I will let them dry and then do a little black line work, fussy cut and create ornaments for the tree! I did the tree last because cutting out all the small circles would take a moment longer then it would for the tree to dry from the base color applied.
From this point on there was a lot of just basic crafting going on. Gluing everything down in its rightful place using Helmars Craft & Hobby PVA Glue. I had fun turning and old side of a delivery box into not one but two trees. What will I do with them? Well one is going right my daughter's pc! We did not do any decorating this year around our bedroom or our computer work space, The other, I may attach a strip of magnetic backing and decorate a fridge or a metal cabinet door. Heck I have time to drop one in the mail with coffees and teas to a pal as well.. One thing I won't have to worry about is the longevity of the glue and my embellishments on my project in mail. It holds super well.. :)
Thank you all for your continued support in 2019!! Have a wonderful and blessed holiday, whatever you celebrate!! See you guys next year!!!
