Art Garden...

Hello friends and welcome to a brand new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog! This week, our theme is called ~ Try To Contain Yourself! So whether you use a box, tin or any other sort of container...we can't wait to see what you create and how you will interpret this challenge!

For my project, I was inspired by a quote from Claude Monet: "My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece" and with this in mind I created my very own art garden using a vignette box from Tim Holtz and packed it full of idea-ology pieces and delicate vellum flowers, if you look really closely, there is even a little paint brush to paint all the centres of the flowers.

So, here we go...

To begin with I took the largest vignette box and I covered the edges of the box with paper strips from the Dapper Paper Stash to recreate the look of a vintage cigar box. As the wonderfully talented  Paula Cheney mentioned in her blog post which you can see here, these strips were specially designed for this purpose! I cut each of the strips and then folded them over the edges, attaching them with Collage Medium. Once the strips were in place, I used a small amount of Walnut Stain Distress Ink and just lightly blended the ink over the top. I also coloured all the joins of the box using Walnut Stain Distress Paint.

To line the inside of the box, I cut a piece of paper from the Wallflower Paper Stash and fitted this to the back wall of the box.

The sides of the box are covered in neutral linen from the Textile Surfaces pack, which I inked with some more Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

For the base of the box, I cut a piece of cheesecloth and dyed it with Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain. Once the cloth was dry, I draped it across the bottom section.

Now that the inside of my box is complete, I started work on the embellishments and to begin with created my abundance of flowers. I used the Tiny Tattered Florals die to die cut white vellum and once the flowers were made up, I then went into the centres and added a touch of yellow paint and some stamens to create a more realistic looking flower.

I then took a Trophy Cup which I wanted to age. I started by adding some Brushed Pewter over the surface of the cup and let it dry until it was slightly tacky. I then gently wiped away some of the paint. Once the remaining paint was thoroughly dry, I then applied Mushroom Alcohol Ink, which I pounced over the surface. This created the most wonderful rusty, tarnished look to the cup.

I added a small piece of foam which I had from some packaging and put this inside the cup before adding moss over the top. I then took some of the Pen Nibs and attached them to skewers, which cut down to size. I added some Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint to the nibs and on one of them, I dipped it into a small amount of Black Soot paint. The paint brush is an old brush, which I snipped the end off and then added some Antiqued Bronze paint to the metal before dipping the brush into Mustard Seed Distress Paint.

I stuck my nibs and brush into the foam and added a couple of vellum flowers and some linen ribbon. To complete the cup, I added a vial label and used the word "discover" from the Words Remnant Rub set.

For the next embellishment, I used one of the small idea-ology Glass Corked Dome and added the Alpha Dice to spell out "ART". Once the dome was sealed with a small amount of Collage Medium, I then inked the glass with Mushroom Alcohol Ink to create a more worn effect. The camera hasn't really picked that up too well, as the reflection on the glass was crazy but I hope you can just about see it!

I added a vellum flower, some moss and a couple of punched laurel leaves to the top of the dome as a finishing touch.

After attaching the cup and the dome to the inside of my box, I then added some more moss and the remaining flowers around the base.

To complete my box, I used a Faucet Knob, which I didn't screw into the box but actually stuck to the top using a small amount of Glossy Accents. I coloured the knob with some Gilding Wax, which gives this wonderful tarnished look.

For my finishing touch, I added the mini plaquette!

I really hope you've enjoyed the creative process behind this project and that you love the finished piece!

As always, if you need any further inspiration for this challenge, then you need look no further than our blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies: Tiny Tattered Florals

Distress Paint: Walnut Stain, Mustard Seed, Black Soot, Brushed Pewter, Antiqued Bronze
Distress Spray Stains: Antique Linen

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Idea-ology: Alpha Dice, Pen Nibs, Linen Ribbon, Trophy Cups, Corked Domes, Mini Plaquettes, Faucet Knob, Textile Surfaces, Vignette Box, Vial Labels, Words Remnant Rubs

Surfaces:  Wallflower Paper Stash, Dapper Paper Stash, Vellum

Mediums: Collage Medium, Mushroom Alcohol Ink

Spanish Topaz Gilding Wax

Ranger Craft Sheet

Heat Gun

Blending Tool
Collage Brushes
Big Shot
Moss, cheesecloth, stamens, skewers and paint brush from my own stash