Vintage Seamstress - Sewing Themed Altered Cigar Box

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing an altered cigar box using papers from digital files that I have printed myself.  This coming August,  the Gina's Designs team will be participating in a cross promotional using digital designs by Kitty's Scrap Post.  We were excited to find out that in addition to each of us picking our choice of a digital  kit to work with for our August projects, all of us received the French Seamstress Kit as an extra bonus.   When I saw this gorgeous French Seamstress kit,  I just knew I had to combine the papers with Gina's sewing themed chipboard shapes.  A match made in Crafty Heaven!

 I'd been wanting a box to store my vintage Czech glass button collection and other sewing related collectibles I have accumulated, so I dug out this cigar box from my stash, and went to work.  I'm so happy with the way it turned out.  The box measures 7" x 7.5" x 4" deep.

I began by covering the box both inside and out, even the bottom got papered.  The best thing about digital papers is that you can print them as many times as you want to.  Just look how pretty the images are in this collection!

After the box was papered, everything got two coats of matte Mod Podge so the box can be wiped clean with a wet cloth.  Several techniques (as described below each photo) were used to decorate the chipboard shapes.

The dressform on the top of the box was embossed with Stampendous Shabby Pink Embossing Powder.  Closeup view of the top below:

Aren't the papers gorgeous!  In addition to the dressform, I simply added a few Recollections flowers and fabric leaves.

On the front of the box I added more chipboard shapes and a few buttons to blend in with the button print on the paper.  Here the chippies were painted with Folk art acrylics.  Metal bookplate by Recollections and metal feet by Tim Holtz were painted with gesso and green acrylic paint.

On this side of the box I added the button border from Gina's Designs, and embossed it with Stampendous Shabby White, Pink, and Blue alternately.

On this side, I added a skeleton clock and clock hands embossed with Stampendous Shabby White embossing powder.  The chipboard clock mimics the clock and clock hands design on the paper.

On this side, I added scissors and another dressform.  The dressform is embossed with Shabby Blue, and the scissors with Shabby Marine (handles) and with a brass color embossing powder for the blades.

Here's a view of the inside! I'm all ready to add my collection of buttons and things!

Closeup of the inside lid.  On these shapes,  I have painted first with Gesso, stamped with a script stamp and then inked with pale pink and pale blue inks from Recollections new Vintage Romance collection of products.

Inside of the box at the bottom is another gorgeous design from the kit.  It was so hard to decide which paper to use on the top!

I hope you like my project, and be sure to visit us at Gina's Designs, and also check out all the gorgeous digital paper collections at Kitty's Scrap Post.

Gina's Designs Products Used:

Vintage Seamstress Shape Set

Button Border

Dressforms 1 Shape Set

Dressforms 2 Miniature Shape set

Skeleton Clocks

Clock Hands Shape Set

Other:

Digital Design Papers by Kitty's Scrap Post

French Seamstress Kit

Vintage Beach Layout

Today I'm sharing another layout I created with one of the vintage family photos that my Mother recently shared with me.  That's Me and Mom on the right.  I love using the beachy teals, greens, and vintage photo colors.  This layout was pretty quick and easy because I built it around one of our botanical journaling blocks.  The shapes are available in a package containing 3 shapes and sizes.  The intricate detailing around the edges is amazing!  I painted mine with gesso, used a script stamp with Perfect Medium, then brushed it with Perfect Pearls Powders.  I used distress inks around the edges, and colored the intricate areas with Prima Chalk Ink.  The chipboard border and element pieces were coated with gesso, then painted with Silks paints.

Botanical Journaling Blocks

Elements Shapes

Cardstock Doily Set 1

Banner Borders Strips

D T Project for Ephemera's Vintage Garden - Standing Flip Style Mini Album

I decided that I would feature my cat Timothy on these stunning and vivid digital papers by Ephemera's Vintage Garden.  I've been so impressed with these papers.   They are so saturated with color and they print out beautifully.  This is my third project with this same collection!   This collection by Ephemera's Vintage Garden is called  The Spring Chic Digital Paper Pack.  The papers are designed to make creating handmade journals easy, but you can use them in any other application, just as you would any other design paper. 

Thanks for looking, more info below the photos.  The first photo is the cover, and the last one is the backside of the mini album.

To view the other projects I made with this same paper collection, please go to the labels section on the sidebar of my blog and click on Ephemera's Vintage Garden.  Head on over to Ephemera's Vintage Garden, to check out Debbie's other gorgeous papers, and sign up for some amazing freebies HERE! 

Design Papers by:

Ephemera's Vintage Garden

Spring Chic Digital Paper Pack

Other:

Standing Flip Book Mini Album and chipboard embellishments by Gina's Designs

Altered Inverted Canvas - DT Project for Gina's Designs

Today I have another Summer themed project, a 12 x 12 inverted canvas featuring our mermaids, one of my favorite shapes to play with.  The larger mermaid I had custom cut in a larger size by special request. 

 I began my project by painting the wooden frame on the backside of the canvas with gesso, followed by ink sprays, then texture paste applied through a stencil.  I rubbed on more gesso to get the look I wanted.  I then flipped the canvas over, and applied a script patterned tissue paper to the front side of the canvas with Mod Podge.  I followed that by spraying the script paper with ink sprays in ocean colors.  I then cut the canvas with sharp scissors randomly from the center, then rolled the sections and adhered them to the frame with hot glue.  At that point the canvas has no backing so I adhered a 12 x 12 sticky backed canvas sheet to a piece of 12 x 12 chipboard.  I painted that with an ocean scene and then adhered the piece to the backside of the canvas with gel medium.  Then I just needed to decorate the inside and of course my mermaids.

I painted the mermaids with gesso, followed by a white pearlescent paint.  When the paint was dry I added texture paste and used a small painters spatula to create swirls to look like fish scales.  When the texture paste was dry, I painted over it with various shimmering paints like silks, twinkling H20's, pearl-ex powders mixed with water, and acrylic metallics.  The type of paint didn't really matter as long as it was shimmery, and I just used whatever I happened to have in the colors I wanted.  I drew the hair on with a thick coat of glossy accents, forming waves, and then poured glass micro beads over the glossy accents.  I was happy with the way they turned out.  Thanks for looking!

Gina's Design Products Used:

Mermaid Shapes Set

Custom Cut Mermaids (8 inch by special request)

Beach Shape Set

Sea Horse Shapes

Palm Tree Shapes Set

Lace appliques by Cathy's Crazy By Design on Etsy

June Sketch Challenge for Gina's Designs

Welcome to the June Sketch Challenge!

Each month, on the first Monday, a new sketch will be provided.  Use the sketch to create a layout, card or other craft project.  Winner will be drawn from all eligible entries and will receive a $10 gift certificate to Gina's Designs online store.  We encourage you to use Gina's Designs products in your project but it is not required to be eligible to win.  You have until the first Monday of the Following month to enter and the winner will be announced on the blog on the second Monday of the following month.  Use the Link Up tool below to enter.

Here is the sketch for June

Here is my take on the sketch.  This month I am using one of my daughters selfie photos in a mixed media layout.  I am featuring one of our texture sheets which made creating the rest of this layout so easy.  I painted the sheet with gesso followed by white pearlized paint by Folk Art.  I painted some of the other chipboard pieces with shimmerz paint and also used the same paint to cover a few random diamonds in the texture sheet to tie the layout together.

Gina's Designs Products Used:

Texture Sheet Diamonds

Words and Phrases 1

Scribbled Lines

An InLinkz Link-up