Forever Sweet 16

Here is the altered book/box I made for my daughter's sixteen birthday.  Her sweet, kind nature inspired the title for the book-- Forever Sweet.

Allsorts Challenge blog challenges us to use our favorite crafty things or make a piece about a favorite hobby,etc. this month.  Well, horses are my daughter's favorite thing right now, so there are a few horses included in this piece. And books are a favorite of hers, so it was only fitting the piece I made her would somehow include books.

Craft Hoarders Anonymous offers the challenge to use an up-cycled item this month.  I bought this finished, hollow book box at an estate sale last summer knowing it would  someday become a birthday "card" for my daughter, since she is a lover of books.It was painted brown with some sort of design on the front. So this is my second attempt at up-cycling for this challenge.

Country View Crafts wants us to include the written word on our submissions, and I interpreted that to be the words of wishes and advice I've included in my project and the words on the embellishments.

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge would like to see stencils and paste used on our projects this month.  I have used stencils along with a product called Delta Texture Magic I was given a LONG time ago...I think it's older than my kids!  The tube says white, but it came out yellowed!  That's just patina!

These are the four challenges I am entering my daughters Forever Sweet book in, along with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes.

Let's take a look at how this was done and what's inside.  I started by removing the cover and  painting the entire inside and outside (except the "pages") with gesso and let  that dry. The "pages" were already gold in color, so I just distressed them with a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Next I painted all the other parts excepting the pages with acrylic paint.  I made a cover, spine and back cover with Tim Holtz Color Core Distress cardstock. I embossed them with Tim Holtz Alterations Valentine's and Book Covers Texture Fades and then sanded them. Getting just the words "Forever Sweet" was a real bear, and I hope to share that with you in a later post.  I tried to write down what I did at the time, but I know I've got to try it a few more times.  Remember, from my previous post, I was doing all this under pressure of very late nights and very early mornings on "deadline" mode. If someone knows of an easy way to do this, would you please share?

On the back cover, I stamped the words of advice from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Phrases 1 set, eliminating some of them to fit in the recessed area and stamping some on scrap paper, then gluing, to give these particular words greater importance. I chose this particular set of phrases, because a 16 year old girl has a tendency to lack confidence. This is where I wrote a hand-written message from Mom and Dad.

On the  outside front cover, for the title, I die cut letters (Sizzlits Naturally Serif), distressed them with Distress Ink and glued them on.

 I kept the cover off while I worked on the inside cover and inside the box.  For my background I chose a paper from my stash, and I do not know the manufacturer.  I cut 6 pieces to fit in the box and on the cover.  I prepared them before gluing them on.   For the cover and the background of the box I used the Tim Holtz Alterations Frameworks Honeycomb die to cut magazine pictures of horses, mini sheet music, and scraps I had in my stash. I used the Texture Magic to use as a grout for the little hexagons.  When this was dry, I used Glossy Accents on some of the hexagons.

I stamped some images in Archival Ink over all the pieces of background paper and colored the wings of the bee with Picket Fence Distress marker. The stamps I used were from 7 Gypsies, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Phrase 1 and Visual Artistry Urban Grunge sets.I glued the inside cover panel to the inside cover. I used Tim Holtz Remnant Rub "FLY" on the background panel (see it behind the butterfly?). I distressed the inside front cover panel with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.Then out comes the very OLD Texture Magic again, which I smeared through Tim Holtz Burlap stencil on the side panels of the box only. This was set aside to dry.

I finished off the inside front cover by applying Tissue Wrap to some house numbers I had in my stash and distressing them with Distress Ink. (The tissue wrap was a small piece I had just received with a little goodie wrapped inside that  I won on Tim's blog, so I don't know which it is. Thank you, Tim and Mario!). This is some great stuff.  I have a box of wrap that I haven't even opened, but I know you'll see a lot more of that on my creations. I glued on the numbers and  added a horse charm from my stash. Cover done!

Now that everything was dry, I glued the 5 pieces of paper background lining  the box.

Onto my little embellishments...The dice (from my stash) with the words (purposefully chosen-"heart" facing toward phrase "Listen to Your Heart", "fly", and "baby" placed under the vial with "love you" on it) was glued down.  The metal butterfly (a sweet gift included with an online order--thank you, Linda!) was glued in.  I filled two vials (Tim Holtz Idea-ology): one with Idea-ology wishbones and tied with baker's twine and the other with foil hearts from my stash on a red thread (both ideas from Pinterest--sorry, saw them awhile ago, and only made a mental note--that's not good for too much, sometime!). I made and glued on labels for each and glued them in the box. The "wish" label is stamped from a Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous stamp, cut out and edged with Black Soot Distress Ink.  The "love you" is a Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rub.

I made the flower out of crinoline based on Tammy Tutterow's tutorial. You can find instructions on her website.  I distressed "stamens"  I found in the baking aisle at Hobby Lobby. Tammy, your instructions were fab, but  have no worries of me taking your place!  I glued the flower in the corner and after swiping/wiping off some Distress Paint on Tim Holtz Idea-ology wordplate, I glued that in front to complete the inside.

My dear sweet husband re-attached the cover, and deadline was met!  My daughter loved this birthday wish with the horses and love with which it was made, but I'm pretty sure she was hoping for a real horse! I enjoyed making this, and learned a lot along the way. Like THROW OUT OLD PRODUCT!

I'm going to enter this into the following challenges:  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes, The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #3 Stencils and Paste, Allsorts Challenge #270 Favourite Things, Country View Challenges Word Play, and Craft Hoarders Anonymous #13 Let's Cycle-Up-Cycle, That Is!.