Mary Arden House Gift Box

Today I am thrilled to share with you this little gift box that I made with the gorgeous new Art-Kure images from Crafter's Companion. I chose the "Mary Arden House" image for this project.

I have many obsessions, and crafting is just one of them. Another is my love of jewelry. Which means, I have many empty jewelry boxes lying around. For this project, I repurposed one of them. First, I covered the top with this beautiful swirl black and white paper -- which was free, because it came from a store's paper bag that my purchase was packaged in! I used Modge Podge both as an adhesive and as a 'glaze' to give the surface sheen and act as a protectant. Isn't the Art-Kure line just stunning? In fact I thought that the image itself was so strong and beautiful, that I did very little coloring. I used two shades of yellow from the new Spectrum Noir alcohol based marker line to color the windows. I layered the image on green and then black, and then glued it to the lid top, again with Modge Podge, and again coating the top of the image. Then I added Tulip snow and glitter.

Finishing touches included a black ribbon, green bow, and a white rosette.The leaf punch is by Martha Stewart. And finally, I should say that my initial inclination was to cover the bottom of the green box. But in the end I left it - not only saving a step, but it really helps to pop the black and white image.So check your basement stash, use found objects, save pretty paper bags, and let the strong images carry the project! Free is good, right?

Check the Crafter's Companion blog for more fun ideas.