Lost & Found ~ The Tale of the Black Pearl

Hello friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is called LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVES and we hope you will join us, have some real fun making your projects and play along!

When it came to making my project, I was inspired by two things ~ take one of the brand new amazing Chapter Three dies from Tim Holtz, add it to one of my favourite film series, Pirates of the Caribbean and of course, the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow and voilà, welcome to my version of life on the ocean waves and the curse of the black pearl.

So, ship ahoy and here's how I created my dead man's chest...

To begin with I took the large vignette box, I will be using the back of the box as the front of your project, together with the matching size of vignette panel, which will be the base of my project.

To create the wood finish on the chest, I used the Lumber 3D Texture Fade and taking two pieces of watercolour card, I lightly spritzed the card with water, placed it in the folder and ran it through my machine, 3 times. After removing the card and drying it thoroughly I used a brayer to add gesso onto the embossed card. By using a brayer, the paint will only touch parts of the embossed areas, and create a resist when I add the inks over the top. Dry the paint and then I misted Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Pumice Stone and Peeled Paint Distress Spray Stains over the top ~ adding a mist of water to move the inks around. Heat dry, or allow to dry naturally and then to accentuate the raised areas of the wood grain, apply the Gathered Twigs Distress Ink Pad directly over the top. Cut the wood grain paper into pieces to cover the front, the top and the two sides of the box and adhere the panels of card using Matte Collage Medium, which I also applied over the top to seal the card.

Next, I wanted to add some texture around the edges and for this I used Texture Crackle Paste and added it to my box using a palette knife. Allow for the paste to dry and the crackles to appear before adding colour using the Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon, applying it directly to the crackle and then using a water brush to move it around and seep into the cracks.

To complete the box, I wrapped some chain from my stash around the box and secured it with a little hot glue at the back.

To create the base for the chest, I took the large vignette panel, applied some Design Tape to the raw edges and then covered the top of the panel with a piece of paper from the Etcetera Paper Stash, adhering it to the panel with Matte Collage Medium. Sand the edges of the panel before ageing it with the Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon and then attached the box to my base.

We now have the basic chest, all ready to decorate....

...and let's start with the skull. I used the Tim Holtz Skull and Crossbones die which is one of the brand new Chapter 3 Sizzix releases. If you watched Tim's FB live, last Monday, you will know that I was so fortunate to be asked to design a few projects with these dies and I will be sharing tutorials for all the projects that Tim showed, as well as a few extras ~ so, keep a look out for these!

I cut my skull and crossbones a couple of times from thick chipboard and then layered them over one another to create a really substantial die cut. At this point don't throw away the little pieces that fall out of the die cut, you will need one fo these later!!!! I painted each piece with gesso to prime the chipboard and then applied some Grit Paste over the top, allowing it to dry thoroughly before using Distress Paints ~ Pumice Stone, Old Paper and Picket Fence to add some colour, adding the paint in layers so not to make it look to muddy.

Once my pieces were dry, I applied a little Gathered Twigs and Peeled Paint Distress Crayon over the surface to accentuate the paste and texture.

Now, all good pirates have to be dressed for the occasion and this one might have seen better times but he still needs to look good and to dress him up I added some fashion details, starting with his eye patch. Remember the eye piece that fell out of the die cut, you need one of these which I painted black and then I mounted the piece onto black card, trimming around the outside to create a border and a patch that is slightly larger than the aperture of the eye.

I wrapped a piece of elastic around my skull die cut, securing it with a knot at the back and then attached my eye patch over the left eye.

For his bandana, I used some cheesecloth that I dyed with Barn Door and Frayed Burlap Distress Spray Stains and then wrapped around his head, tying it on the left hand side.

To complete this pirate, I added an earring, which is one of the charms from the Milogros set and just attached to a jump ring before I pierced his ear.

I attached my skull and crossbones to the chest using foam pads to add depth and dimension before attaching moss around the die cut and placing a small die cut spider coming out of his eye. This spider is die cut from black card, using the Frightful Things die set and embossed with Gunmetal embossing powder.

Moving onto the base of the piece, you can see I added quite a few bits and pieces that bring this story to life...

All the embellishments sit on a base of moss and then a smattering of Art Stones, which I painted with Unicorn's Hair and Dragon's Eye Sparks Paints. I attached both of these with Matte Collage Medium. I also added a small die cut spider's web, placed along the base of the chest.

To create the little rolled map, I used some of the map design paper from the Etcetera paper pad, rolled it up and then tied it together with some red twine.

I attached this to my base, together with some of those infamous Bauble Adornments that I love to use and yes, multi-buy because I find them so useful for so many different projects!!! Can't get enough!!!! I coloured with Mushroom Alcohol Ink and Smolder Alcohol Pearls. To tell the tale of the Curse of the Black Pearl, I then took two small shells, glued them together to create a hinge and placed a Bauble, inked with Pitch Black Alcohol Ink, inside and attached this to my arrangement, together with some Boneyard Findings.

The finishing touch is the bottle of rum, a tiny corked vial crackled with Rock Candy Crackle Paint and coloured with Sepia Alcohol Ink. I then attached this to the arrangement, but placed the cork below it.

We're nearly there and all that's left is to add the finishing details...

A key hanging from the chain, attached to the side of the box.

Some Vignette Hardware nails hammered into the top of the box and some Hardware Heads on either side...

...and finally, I used one of the Halloween Quote Chips, Lost & Found from last year and placed this onto two hardware pieces to slightly elevate it.

Well, I hope you've stuck with me on this one...it was quite detailed but really worth it and I hope you love the final piece, it was so much fun to create and I loved bring my Dead Man's Chest to life and tell the story of the Curse of the Black Pearl!

Have fun creating your projects and don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog 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 taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Skull and Crossbones, Frightful Things, Lumber 3D Texture Fade
Distress Paint: Old Paper, Pumice Stone, Picket Fence
Distress Spray Stain: Barn Door, Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Pumice Stone and Peeled Paint

Distress Crayons: Gathered Twigs

Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Halloween Quote Chips, Vignette Boxes, Vignette Panels, Vignette hardware, Word Keys, Boneyard Findings, Bauble Findings, Tiny Corked Vials, Jump Rings, Humidor Design Tape, Milogros Adornments

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Texture Crackle Paste, Grit Paste, Rock Candy Crackle Paint
Surfaces: Watercolour Card, Etcetera Paper Stash
Alcohol Pearls Ink: Smolder
Alcohol Inks: Pitch Black, Mushroom, Sepia
Prima Marketing Art Stones
Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
Palette Knife
Moss
Big Shot
Chain, shells, red twine and cheesecloth from my own stash