A Box with a story

Hi everyone and welcome. Astrid here with my first project for the merry month of June...

I altered a little pencil box that started life as an empty Panpastels box. But before I talk you through how I made it, I better tell you the story behind it that will explain the elements used on and in the box. You see, I am not the only arty one in the family, my husband loves sketching, particularly little town scapes.  He is very good at perspective, something that I am hopeless at. Anyway, whenever we travel and visit a town somewhere, rather than walk round together, he settles down somewhere to sketch, while I do the shops.... (he hates shopping...)We then arrange a time to meet up again, and  inevitably I am  late.... So, to make up for that, I decided to make him a box to keep his pencils in and to say thank you for rarely being cross with me about it.

So here's how I made it:

I started by painting the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Paint. I then covered both the in and the outside with papers from the Tim Holtz Crowded Attic paper collection and Distressed everything with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink .

Next I stamped the clock, key and sentiment from the Time and Keys set, cut them out inked them and adhered them to the box. I then covered the clock with Crackle Accents and the key with Glossy Accents

I decorated the top still with one of the elements from the papers and a pen nib.

 I love how with the glossy accents the key has come out looking so dimensional.

 Same with the clock and the Crackle Accents

For the inside I created a little book out of Kraft card and covered it with more of the papers. The book is made out of just one A 4 sheet, here is a link to a tutorial on how to do this.

The spine was made with an embossed bit of metal from an empty tomato paste tube that a friend gave me.

When I found the "Perfect Attendance Certificate" as one of the elements in the paper stash I just had to stick it on the inside of the lid, and the Painter ephemera bit was perfect for the cover of the book, further enhanced with another pen nib. DH can use the little book to stick some of his favourite sketches in

Th book closes with a ribbon and to finish it I just made a label still with the Scrabble and Tags set.

Oh an just a little reminder, if you haven't entered our Makes for Men challenge yet, there is still plenty of time. Just click on the image in the side bar to see all the deets!

Well, hope you like this little gift set, I had fun making it, thank you for visiting today!