Bee is For Box

Recently I was browsing the aisles at a local discount store looking for treasures. I happened upon a small box in a color I can only euphemistically call Pepto Bismol Pink.  A phrase on the top of it said 'Beautiful'.  No wonder this unwanted orphan was on the death row of aisles, The Clearance Aisle, aka the 75-90% Off Aisle.  For $1.39, I decided to take it home.

Now what? 

It sat there. Staring at me. 'I'm already beautiful. See, it says so," it taunted.

So I painted it green.  

Yikes, that didn't help matters.   I planned on using this little box as storage for words/sentiments I had in my stash, and I needed some inspiration. 

Design Teams to the rescue! I decided to search some blogs for inspiration and two of those caught my eye. Anything But Cute's current challenge was 'Birds and the Bees' and Simon Says Stamp had a wonderful Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge going on. The Tic-Tac-Toe was such a clever idea, I knew I wanted to play along, and I thought 'Bees' would be a fun theme.

For the Simon Says Stamp Challenge, I chose the top row: Sequins, Gold, Stamp

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I covered the green I had carelessly applied to the box with white gesso and Prima's Modeling paste through an old stencil I had on hand.  Prima's Art Alchemy Steampunk Copper and DecoArt's Champagne Gold came next as a base layer followed by Lindy's Bayou Boogie Gold and Clam Bake Beige sprays. 

While my base was drying, I made my bees out of Polymer clay; baked them, painted them and glued them to wing nuts for wings.  I'm a bit afraid of bees (read, terrified), so making them 'winged nuts' was a psychological bandaid to my illogical (or so I'm told) fear. I also made flowers from scrapbook paper, foil and netting using Tim Holtz 'Tattered Florals' die and a Sizzix Big Kick machine.    I painted the paper and foil flower layers with the same paints and sprays used on the box plus Lindy's Burnt Umber; smaller florals and greenery were created by painting blooms from my stash.

Since this project will be a storage box for words and sentiments, I decided to make my bees 'spelling bees' by stamping and embossing letters on the box.  I used the Stampabilities Typewriter Background Stamp, Ranger's Clear Distress Ink and gold ZING! embossing powder. Continuing in the 'spelling' theme, some of the flowers have a petal layer cut from text.

I adhered the components, including a honeycomb I cut out of cardstock and painted with Prima's Art Alchemy Steampunk Copper. The wood frame is painted with DecoArt's Champagne Gold.  Gold sequins (honey drops) are scattered here and there on the arrangement.  

And one last thing: A honey pot!

Products used:

Prima: White Gesso, Modeling Paste, Art Alchemy Steampunk Copper acrylic paint; DecoArt: Champagne Gold acrylic paint; Lindy's Stamp Gang: Bayou Boogie Gold Starburst spray, Clam Bake Beige Starburst spray, Burnt Umber Moon Shadow Mist; Ranger: Clear Distress Embossing Ink, Perfect Pearls Perfect Gold, Glossy Accents; Tim Holtz: Idea-ology Tiny Vials, Tattered Florals Die, Diamond Plate and Riveted Metal embossing folders

I also used a Sizzix machine, Fimo polymer clay, ZING! embossing powder, Stampablities Typewriter Background Stamp, stencil, DCWV paper, netting, gold sequins, aluminum foil and wing nuts.  

Threads in the Magic Garden

I would like to share a creation I made for my friend Leesa.   Leesa excels at random acts of kindness and I wanted to thank her for a special gift she made for me.  Since she also is a beautiful quilter, I decide to do a mixed media piece that had a quilting/sewing theme.  This is the result: Threads in the Magic Garden.

After my black gesso background had dried, I used stencils and modeling paste for texture. I just had to rip a side off of a piece of cardboard (which I had stitched around with yarn) and add it to the canvas along with a zipper, 'recycling' the inspiration from my first mixed media piece A R T.  I should add a side note about the zippers I've been using.  They were orange.  I mean really orange from a really, really orange down, puffy vest.  Yikes!  I wore that many years ago.  Why? I cant answer that and prefer not to dwell on it!  

Next, I began adhering my embellishments: paper flowers that I had cut out of cardstock , thread, beads, gears, a bobbin, snaps, tiny scissors, etc.  I embossed the butterflies and the word Magic and set those aside.

Acrylic paint and ink was applied next in garden greens and shades of blue and purple.  I rubbed a tarnished gold pigment on the metal embellishments and the center of the flowers. Any guesses on what I made the flower centers from?  Heads of Q-Tips!

The spool of thread, the embossed butterflies and the word Magic were added next.  And my final touch was running string around the gears and through the sewing needle.  One butterfly is 'sewing' and the other, snipping the threads.  See?  It's magic!