A day Late, but not a dollar short. Happy Mother's Day

My post may be a Day late for Mother's Day but I don't think that my mother would say the gift was a dollar short ;).

About a month ago I was wandering through Michael's when I found Lisa M. Pace's book, Delight in the Details. I flipped through it a bit and decided to buy it. It wasn't until I got home that I realized what a treasure I had stumbled onto. The book is the best art book I have ever purchased!

It is chocked full of project idea's, one of them being a mother's day box. As soon as I saw the idea I knew I had to make one for my own mother. Like always I pulled a little of this and a little of that from the book to make the box my very own.

I started with Lisa's Faux Porcelain Flowers. This part was a bit tricky since the product Lisa used is no longer available on the market. I ended up using Stiffy and watering it down. Once that was dry I followed the remainder of her instructions. I don't think that my sealer was exactly the same as Lisa's because my flowers never took on a brilliant glass like shine but that could also be the difference in fabric stiffener used, because the paper I had them sitting on when I sprayed them got very very shinny.

When the flowers were ready I cut a piece of cardstock slightly smaller than the box top and started to build the box topper. The technique used for the lace that peaks out all around I already knew but Lisa has included it in her book also. To finish off the topper I added some hand died seam binding that I crinkled.

Before affixing the topper to the box I had to do something to the rest of the heart shaped box. I decided that a crackled look would be nice so I prepped the box with a natural linen acrylic paint, then the crackle medium and then I added the pink acrylic paint. I think my crackle medium is a bit old because it only worked in a few spots but that doesn't really bother me since a lot of the non crackled parts got covered. Next I dusted on some brownish inks to give it an older feel and to add some depth.

Around the lid of the box I wrapped a piece of hand died fabric that I stamped a swirl on. If I had it to do again I would have stamped the swirl design that I stamped on the fabric all over the bottom outside of the box. Even though a lot of it would have been covered by the rosettes I think it would have added more depth.

The last element is one that I have seen around a lot but didn't know how to do until I bought Lisa's book. I made 6 rosettes to go around the base of the box. Each rosette is made from white streamer that I dusted with brown inks and then glittered the edges of. On the rosettes I placed a chipboard heart that I had glittered and added the letters to spell out mother.

I created a set of 3 rosettes that have a shabby chic feel to them at the same time, those are for sale in my Etsy store.


Well, that's it for the box...I filled it with candy and mailed it out. I hope that my mother and mother in law enjoy them. I learned a lot making them and had fun doing it.