Summer Celebrations with IndigoBlu

Hi everyone. I'm serving up a little treat for you today with an entry for Eileen Hull's Art with Heart June Challenge - Summer Celebrations.

There's nothing quite so personal as a little home-made cake to give as a gift if someone you care about is celebrating, and if you present your treat in it's only hand-crafted box you make it extra special for the lucky recipient.

Eileen's Square Box design is the perfect size for housing muffins and cupcakes. I cut this one from 280gram card twice. The die is designed to cut/score matboard (mountboard) so at this stage I had to go over the scorelines with an embossing tool but wanted to make the box double-skinned. An oval aperture was cut into one side so that an acetate 'window' could be added, allowing the recipient to get a glimpse of what awaited them.

It's always best to colour/stamp/stencil your box before assembly so you have a flat surface to work on. I wanted to replicate the luxury look of a certain chocolate brand painting it with 'Wimberry Pie' acrylic paint before stamping it with a couple of IndigoBlu designs; it's as though Kay designed this sentiment from the 'More Than Words' set to fit the box, and I used the Mechanics A6 stamp for the top.

Both were stamped with FlitterGlu before being covered in 'Chariot of Fire' Mega Flake. For those of you in the US who may be unfamiliar with these products here's a couple of reviews from Amy Bowerman after she got to experience them first hand at the January 2014 CHA confererence;

http://pluckingdaisies.com/cha-2014-recap-top-product-picks-a-giveaway-and-more/

http://pluckingdaisies.com/artist-trading-block-stenciling-technique/

To complete the rather decadent look to this box I cut some tattered flowers from Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Clearly for Art, colouring them with Butterscotch Alcohol ink before shaping each of the three layers. Some of the leaves were cut from the same material, coloured with Oregano and Pearl alcohol inks, and others from gold card, embossed and shaped with an embossing tool.

The flowers were secured in place using Idea-Ology brass coloured Long Fasteners.

When constructing the box I added a second layer of card inside the box; in part this was to cover any paint on the insides (ensuring a clean look) and it also helped to cover the fastenings on the box lid. By using two layers of 280gram card the box was nice and sturdy.

Needless to say, with four hungry fellas at home the fresh blueberry muffin (and its companions) didn't last long but the box would be a permanent reminder for that special person if  I had decided to give it away as a gift.

That's it for now but there's plenty more to come from me this week.

Hope the coming week is kind to you. Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Links to the IndigoBlu products used for this box;

Mega Flake 'Chariot of Fire'

FlitterGlu

English Cottage Artist's Acrylic Paint 'Wimberry Pie'

A5 Stamp Set 'More Than Words'

A6 Stamp 'Mechanics'