Celebrate with Shiny Brights

I was thrilled to be asked to be a guest Creative Guide over at A Vintage Journey this fortnight, with the challenge "Let's Celebrate".  The idea at A Vintage Journey is to create  projects with a heavy Tim Holtz influence which the Creative Guides have polished to perfection.

(Warning:   this is a long, photo heavy post, and there are many white lines and other ghosties in my photos from the reflection off the "glass" in the frame--they are not on my project!.)

  I've been a huge fan of Mr. Holtz for a couple of years, and have been admiring the many Configurations projects on his blog. I've hoarded a few boxes, but just never got up the courage to put one together (commitment phobe).  This challenge has given me the creative push I needed.  When I think of Christmas and Tim, I always think of Shiny Bright ornaments. I share a love of these fragile, colorful glass ornaments with him, and have collected quite a few over the years.. I chose to make my project for my guest spot using a few of my ornaments and one of Tim's Configurations boxes.

I wanted to make a wall hanging which I could display year round, so I chose to give the exterior of my box  a wood grain look. My thought is to be able to remove the cover and use it to display other Configurations collections with an quick change.  To achieve the  framed look, I die cut thick chipboard using Tim's On the Edge die and attached one top and bottom. I gave everything a coat of gesso--both large and small pieces.  For the faux wood finish, I used  Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain and Weathered Wood Distress Paint, followed by Rock Candy Crackle Paint and another wiped on coat of the same paints. In person, this has the look of old barn siding.  Just the look I was going for in the area of my home where it will be displayed.

I added the Idea-ology word plate and key hole after applying Antique Linen Distress paint, allowing it to set up, then wiping off the majority of the paint for a nice antiqued finish.

Now for the interior.  What fun!  This is much more tedious than I ever imagined it would be, but I am a perfectionist and there was a LOT of measuring twice, cutting once.  I chose to use just 3 of the 9 little boxes (I LOVE boxes!) for this project.  Each of the boxes is lined with paper from Tim's Seasonal 8 x 8 paper stash, which is the perfect size for these little "rooms".  I chose the Shiny Bright ornament (of course!)  and the catalog pages and aged them slightly with Distress ink. Most of it is covered by the ornaments, but I tried to get a "before" photo of the boxes in the following photos.  I just love the graphics on this paper!  I painted the edges of the boxes using the same paints mentioned above.

There's my bell!  You can hear it if you BELIEVE!

I attached an Idea-ology ring fastener to the bottom of one box to hang a vintage bell, and once my background paper was in place and the exterior of the boxes papered, I glued the three boxes in place.

For my background paper, I chose to use photocopies of some vintage Post Cereal Promotional pop out and assemble Christmas ornaments.  I picked up these great little folders at an estate sale this summer.  One side is printed with the sweetest Santa, angel, tree and other ornaments you pop out and assemble into  3D paper ornaments, and the other is this graphics you see here (You can see the lines of the perforations if you look closely).  I gave the photocopies just a little distressing with Distress inks to tone down the brightness. I think the paper is just a perfect compliment to my ornaments. I also papered the sides and top surfaces of my little boxes with this paper taking extra care to cut the papers so the images would appear continuous as they would on the original paper.  I didn't get it right every time--not such a perfectionist, after all!  The ceiling of the large box and the little boxes and undersides of the little boxes were inked with Vintage Photo.

I glued on some Idea-ology Mirrored Stars which I colored using alcohol inks.  One star was placed so that it would appear to be the star on top of my vintage tree. (I did not want to actually attach anything to any of the ornaments.)

These are vintage deer; they just don't build them like they used to!

I made several embellishments using Tim's dies, which I will list at the end of this post.  For the poinsettia, I embossed  with Tim's Poinsettia Texture Fade, inked with Distress Inks and glittered with Diamond Dust  The center is Platinum Stickles. This is my favorite Christmas die.

 The pine cone and foliage glistening with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

Same with the holly leaves and berries from my stash. I think the glue was still wet when I snapped this photo.

 Snowflakes cut from acetate waste packaging and glittered as above.  Adhered  to acetate window with removable glue dots.

I filled an Idea-ology vial with mercury glass beads, tied up with string given as part of my little gift with my most recent Funkie Junkie order. (Thank you, Linda; it was just what I needed!) An Idea-ology metal word tag altered with a little Antique Linen Distress paint.

One last embellishment is an Idea-ology game piece aged  with a little Distress ink.

All that's left to do is to decide which ornaments I want to put in and decorate! (which is what I have to do in my home now, too!)  I installed all the ornaments with removable glue dots, so I could remove and replace them with other favorites.  I can also remove and store my precious vintage ornaments and store them in their original Shiny bright boxes for safe keeping.

A piece of my vintage jewelry found it's way in!

I hope you've enjoyed my little ornament display box as much as I've enjoyed making it.  You'll notice it is sitting on a shelf.  I still have not found an ideal hanging system for this.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  The folks over at the frame department in Hobby Lobby could offer no advice.

Dies used:  Tattered Pinecone and Poinsettia dies, Festive Greenery Decorative Strip, Snowflake Movers and Shapers and Brackets On the Edge dies.
Texture Fade: Tattered Poinsettia

Thank you for visiting my blog today and for your lovely, heart warming comments you leave!

I would like to enter this into the following inspiring Christmas Challenges:

Country View Challenges December's Festive Challenge "Nostalgic Christmas"

Inspiration Journal "Sing, Sing It Loud!" (My bell!  Can you hear it???  Only if you believe!)

The Mirror Cracked #4 Recycle/Upcycle or a Christmas Gift (I've recycled waste plastic packaging for my snowflakes, an old earring (only had one of a pair) for my Santa ornament, chipboard from the back of a paper pad to make the top and bottom "frame", and berries from an old wreath for my holly berries)

Crafting For All Seasons #92 "Anything Christmas BUT a Card"