Safari Suitcase

 Faith sent me a lovely suitcase to decorate this month,  I have gone in a very different direction from what I normally do for this project.  Check out the fabulous kits at Faith's on line shop Faith Pocock Craft Studio.

Here is the blank kit assembled.

The lid on this kit fits very tightly over the base so I used ink around the areas where the lid overlaps the base rather than paint which would have stopped the lid from closing properly.

I used wallpaper and wallpaper borders to cover this project.  

Firstly I covered the inside edges of the suitcase with the dark leopard print paper, taking care not to cover the tabs.

I then assembled the bottom and the sides.  Because I was not going to use this as a suitcase and I wanted it to sit on a desk or dresser I added four door wooden knobs to the bottom of the case as feet,  I marked where they were going to sit and screwed them on to the base, after painting the feet with black acrylic paint..

I marked where the sides of the lid came down to on he sides. I then inked the top part of the sides and glued the pale border paper over the remainder of the sides. 

I cut the brown strips off the top and bottom of the border and glued these around the base and the sides of the lid.

I inked the handle with vintagre photo distress ink and then I covered the handle with twine.  The pieces on either side of the handle were also inked to look like leather and I glued small circles around the edges to make it look like rivets.

I then covered the inside of the suitcase and the inside and outside of the lid and the inner border with leopard wallpaper.  I cut out the lion, leopard, and tiger heads from the wallpaper border and glued them to the outside and the inside of the lid.

 

To make this project extra special I then covered the lid with clear coat resin which has given it a wonderful depth and shine that looks amazing and is hard to capture with the camera. 

I am pretty pleased with how this turned out and I encourage everyone to check out Faith's kits and let your imagination take flight.

Steampunk Owl Bookbox and Journal

 My first project this month for Faith Pocock Craft Studio is another book box.  This one is steampunk themed and I have also made a journal to fit inside the box. The jounral is not part of the kit.  I have used a combination of resin pieces from moulds, wooden cogs from Faith and diecuts. The paper is from Kaisercraft.

The piece on the inside of book box cover is made by using gel medium in a Stamperia soft mould. 

I covered the three sides with modelling paste then once the base coat was dry I used modelling paste through the Kaisercraft stencil to add texture. I then glued Kaisercraft wooden pipes and cogs on the side pieces. Be careful to not cover the tabs otherwise it makes it very hard to assemble the box. 

The journal has six hand sewn signatures of coffee dyed copy paper and has a chain and button closure. The cover is made from calico and has been stencilled using gold metallic paint and the Kaisercraft stencil. It has a button and chain closure.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this project inspires you to get a kit and make your own bookbox.  It does not have to be used for a journal. It can be used for storage of

Mushroom Journal

 I have used some packaging that used to hold meringues.  This packaging had a window in the front of the box.  I covered the box with book pages and over those I glued some sewing pattern tissue.  I used calico to cover the spine.  This is a big book measuring 11" x 5" and it has 9 signatures with a total of 324 sides.  The paper inside has been dyed with coffee and food colouring and is made up of graph paper, lined paper, copy paper, and watercolour paper in various sizes.  

The journal is held closed with a piece of scarf

There is a small amount of stamping but the journal is mostly blank, leaving plenty of room for journaling or adding ephemera, 

I have added mushroom stickers and a small stamped paper bag to each signature.

On the front page of each signature I have added a stamped sewn teabag with a mushroom image glued to the teabag.