Altered watch box

Hiya folks, hope you're having a good weekend!  This week I wanted to share a project I worked on recently during one of our regular Scrappy Tree Skype sessions! Love how easy it makes 'socialising' with your friends from far away :)

I've altered quite a few items with this technique now from Andy Skinner's 'Book of Secrets' workshop; I was lucky enough to attend the class with him in person but it's available as an online class now so the weblink in this paragraph leads you there.

This time I had an old watch box in the shape of a book...

It was a lovely little box in its own right but not too exciting as it had the manufacturer's name embossed on the front so....

The 'metal' plates and rivets are part of Andy's book of secrets class, with a Tando Creative die cut bookplate on the front and die cut cog on the back, and a few Ideology gears.

I cut a piece of manila card to size and stamped it using tiny letter stamps with the word 'wish' in coffee Archival ink, then inked around the edges in frayed burlap Distress Ink.  I filled in the centre with Glossy Accents to give it a glassy look.

And here's the back with the larger Tando Creative cog.

I've got a bigger project to share with this technique very soon once I can get some good pictures, just love it!  Want to put it on everything! Thanks Andy :)

Just wanted to remind you that this month is National Craft Month and we're sending out a RAK every week this month to a follower from the blog (Kirsten this week), our Facebook page and chat group, and our Twitter account, so come say hello and let us know what you're making :)


Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Andy told us to open the 'Book of Secrets'... so we did!

So my Mother's Day present for my dear Mum this year was a workshop at The Stamp Attic called the 'Book of Secrets' which was a day of steampunk awesomeness taught by Andy Skinner; I hadn't been familiar with Andy's work before spotting his class on the Stamp Attic website but the techniques he uses are AMAZING so check his blog out here!  He also has a range of stamps which are fab too, I can't wait for the release of the new fairground ones which you can see on his Facebook page here.

Top view of my 'book'!

We did have to leave the class a little earlier than we'd expected but thankfully lovely Wendy sent me a few photos of the class to share :)

Wendy's workshop space at The Stamp Attic all ready for class

Wendy and Gayle in happy smily crafty pose

Andy Skinner teaching!

I spent the day absolutely boggled at this amazing thing forming in front of my eyes!  We started out with a book-shaped wooden box, some card, paints, and a few die cut embellies.  Andy walked us through putting the whole thing together and bit by bit you forgot it was ever made up of those component parts because it just turned into this gorgeous, rusty, steampunk book!  Absolute genius :)  We'll definitely be looking out for some more of Andy's classes!

We picked up some class kits of the paints we used, I can signpost you to look for drybrushing techniques on Andy's blog if you want to see how we built up the layers, and to look for some of the die cuts on the Stamp Attic site.  I added a few Tim Holtz Idea-logy safety pins and an 'altered' dog tag when I got home after I messed about adding some more paint :)

Pardon the photos, was waiting to catch the sun here in Wales and then the camera battery ran out before I was finished! lol

Rather than opening like a traditional book, the spine slides out to reveal a drawer inside for goodies :)

Have a wonderful weekend, especially to Kristin and Julie from The Scrappy Tree who are spending the weekend at a retreat with some good scrappy friends of ours!  Have fun girls!!

Gayle xx