Valentine Treasure Box

Hi there - Teresa here bringing you a Valentine's day project with an old world vintage feel to it.

I wanted to design something that could hang on a wall year round, and something that wasn't necessarily girly.  This is what I came up with:

Read on for step by step instructions:

The Shadow Box can be found here : Shadow Box

Step 1
Paint any areas of the Twiddleybitz shadow box you don't intend to cover with paper. I have used a deliciously vintage purple colour of Fresco Finish acrylic called Squid Ink here, and applied with with a sponge:

Step 2
Cover the front frame of the shadow box with paper. I have used Paper Artsy's Thorndon Hall paper pack:

 

Step 3

To give the frame more texture, I mixed some of the Squid Ink with Grunge Paste and applied it through a Brocade stencil:

Step 4
Once dry, I applied some Treasure Gold and buffed with a soft cloth:

Step 5
I used the Brocade stencil again to sponge some gold ink onto the backboard of the shadow box. I just did the edges because that's all that will be visible when complete:

Step 6
It's then a matter of stacking some papers to create dimension. I have mixed some Squid Ink paint with water in a Mini Mister to create my own spray, and used this to alter some of the papers:

 

Here I have used some heart shaped Spellbinders dies and some gauze to create a central focus:

Then I added a key cut from some of the patterned paper in the pack with ribbons tied around it, and then added some gold tassel trim:

Step 7
The finishing touches included:

A flourish cut from chipboard with a Sizzix die and some chicken wire coloured with Butterscotch alcohol ink, and some sticker alphabet stickers:

A couple of little corked bottles and a rolled up 'letter':

and lastly a tattered flower made from the sprayed patterned paper:

I hope you've enjoyed my vintage love project!