A New Life for a Truffle Box!

Hello everyone! I do hope you had a wonderful Christmas with lots of craft goodies and packaging by the lorry-load to re-cycle!Tonight I'm sharing some space over at PaperArtsy with my friends, Gabrielle and Lucy. We're delighted to be tonight's #3Up-ers! If you haven't done so already, please do hop across and take a look at the fabulous projects Gabrielle and Lucy came up with, using their favourite materials and a very lovely Lynne Perrella stamp! We were each allowed to choose a favourite technique, but Lynne Perrella's LPC030 was our co-ordinating feature. I had a truffle box I had been saving from last Christmas and I wanted to use Shrink Plastic to give it a special makeover. This particular stamp was just perfect for decorating a circular box and adding interest in the detail.

I snipped off the little ribbon loop on top and coated the whole box with Gesso.

As you can see, I also painted inside the box with PaperArtsy Little Black Dress for contrast. The Gesso was quite rough in places, so I sanded it down, before applying my Frescos.

For a shabby-chic look, I painted the inner box with Little Black Dress and then a thin coat of PaperArtsy crackle glaze applied with a palette knife. When this was dry I over painted with thick strokes of Nougat. I then sponged the edges with some Chocolate Pudding and, for the final touch, I stamped some Hot Picks text in Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil Archival. I didn't use a block with the stamp and I just touched the surface in places with it to give an uneven, worn impression.

Now it was time to add some texture. I had given the lid a coat of Nougat Fresco and I added a few drops of Irish Cream to some Grunge Paste and pushed this through a stencil to create the lacy pattern on the lid. I used a couple of PA flower dies of different sizes to create the rose from good quality drawing paper, painted with Nougat, Irish Cream and a touch of Chocolate pudding. There's also some of that text from Hot Picks on there!

I liked the way my box was shaping up, but it needed something to give it a new history! Using the Lynne Perrella stamp, it was going to be transformed from a just one of many chocolate boxes on a production line to a little keepsake for storing special things.

Over on the PaperArtsy blog you can see how I painted the Shrink Plastic and die-cut it to create these miniature leaves, which I edged with a little Treasure Gold. The Guacamole was a nice 'pop' of colour, I thought.

Here is the final view of the project with the Lynne Perrella stamp in its entirety, stamped onto tissue painted with Nougat, with a little brayering of Snowflake here and there for highlight and fixed on with Satin Glaze. I like to think that it no longer looks like a truffle box from a very well known high street store; but a curio found hidden away in a cluttered old junk shop. I filled it with a selection of twines and ribbons for a special, crafty friend. I do hope you are all finding lots of inspiration from the #3UP projects and lots of time to play this holiday! Very Best Wishes everyone for a Happy and Creative New Year!