Friday 31 January 2020

2020 #2 A Hint of Spring: Cherry Blossom Gift Box with ESA Minis {by Jenny Marples}

2020 Topic 2: A Hint of Spring


With a beautiful project to herald Spring, Jenny has created a soft and sumptuous box full of texture and details and some great tips for distressing your projects.

Hi everyone, it's Jenny Marples (of Pushing The Right Buttonswith you today sharing A Hint of Spring in the form of a Cherry Blossom Gift Box.

Whilst many of us long for warmer, lighter days here in the UK, the Japanese eagerly await the flowering of the Sakura to herald the arrival of Spring. Being a huge fan of all things oriental I immediately thought of cherry blossom when seeing one of Seth Apter's new mini stamps (EM50) and it sparked the idea of creating a collage style box.


Below is a tutorial to show you how this came together and to share some ideas for using Seth's latest Minis in combination with the Soft Pinks and Khaki Greens Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint sets to achieve a gentle, delicate look to your finished projects.

I assembled the new Eileen Hull Designs Gift Box from thick board and painted it. After adding a layer of Winter Green Acrylic Paint I applied candle wax followed by black gesso so that as the box is handled it will naturally acquire signs of ageing, with hints of the deep green shade showing through in the scratches and scrapes. 

Needing a surface that could remain flexible when painted yet strong enough to cope with stitching I opted for an off-cut of textured wallpaper. This was covered in one coat of Lichen Acrylic Paint.


Seth's EM55 stamp was used in a repeating pattern across the paper using Khaki Acrylic Paint, and I then used a brayer to add random patches of more Lichen Acrylic Paint to get that slightly worn wallpaper look.


Torn scraps of thicker cheap watercolour paper were covered with Honey Dew Acrylic Paint before being overstamped with Seth's EM56 stamp using more Lichen Acrylic Paint.



To provide some contrast to the pale greens I painted some thinner copier paper with Seth's new Gold Rush Acrylic Paint before overstamping with his new Heavy Cream Acrylic Paint and EM49 stamp.

  



The next piece of paper was actually left over from the Valentine's box shared here earlier this month; a combination of Blush, Rose and Gold Rush Acrylic Paints were brayered over each other before being die cut to create lace effect pieces. 


After cutting the wallpaper into squares big enough to cover each side of the gift box, the various painted, stamped and die cut pieces were edged with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide Ink and glued in place to form five identical collages (the base of the box was covered just with one of the wallpaper squares). As an extra touch of texture and detail I stamped and embossed Seth's EM54 stamp using his Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture Embossing Powder as shown below. Once complete I used a template to stitch a traditional Japanese Sashiko pattern over each collaged square to help unify the background and add more texture.


The blossom panels were created by stamping Seth's EM50 image onto tea stained copier paper with (appropriately enough) Cherry Blossom Acrylic Paint. They were then mounted onto thicker card and edged with more Walnut Stain Distress Oxide Ink.


I created branches to lay over each stamped panel by painting kraft card with Gold Rush and White Fire Acrylic Paint before die cutting each shape.


A combination of Blah Mange and Rose Acrylic Paints were added to a strip of plain cotton calico - I found following Leandra's tip of mixing the paints with a fabric medium before applying them ensured the coverage was a lot smoother and easier.


Individual blossoms were die cut from the painted fabric using Eileen Hull's Stitchy Flowers dies and after shaping them with a ball tool, I added a drop of Liquid Pearls into the centre of each one, allowing them to air dry.


Finishing the box was then simply a case of assembly; after adding the square collages to the sides and top of the box I glued the blossom panels, branches and flowers in place on the sides as can be seen below.


In order to add some dimension to the top of the box lid I used some white wire edged ribbon to form a bow, inserting the die cut branches and flowers to enhance it further. A hot glue gun is definitely recommended for this stage! Below are some close ups so you can see more of the details.





And here's the finished Cherry Blossom Gift Box in full again.


I really enjoyed combining this softer colour palette with Seth's stamps and hope it gives you ideas for looking at his images as more than just backgrounds to be used with the punchier shades.

14 comments:

Miriam said...

Such a gorgeous box Jenny

Words and Pictures said...

Enchantingly pretty... and that lovely green on green EM55 wallpaper would be perfect in a dollshouse - thanks for the idea!!
Alison x

Etsuko said...

Beautiful box Jenny, I love the soft colour comb with a spring atmosphere. xx

Sue Lelli said...

So many GORGEOUS details! Especially LOVE the blossoms and the stitching!

Helen said...

Beautiful colours. Love it.

A Pink said...

Your cherry blossom box is absolutely gorgeous , Jenny. Love how you have used Seths minis to create all those lovely stamped and painted collage pieces that you have brought together so harmoniously creating a wonderful 'flow' around the box. Your sashiko stitching really adds to this 'flow' .
Thank you for staring the BTS creativity of an(s I said at the top ) Absolutely Gorgeous piece.

Your valentine box is a real beauty too . (I tried to leave some love for it on your post last month but for some reason I wasn't able to so thought I'd leave it here for you today

A x

Jennie Atkinson said...

Absolutely stunning Jenny. There are so many details and techniques in this one project .... I love them all! and those gorgeous soft colours are just stunning. Jennie x

Craftyfield said...

What a fabulous box, from the wallpaper (saving the tip for later...) to the die-cut and stitching it's full of great details!

Charlene said...

Oh my word Jenny you are brilliant love your style,beautiful

Corrie Herriman said...

This is stunning !
Corrie x

Yvonne said...

Love this little box and your choice of colors and use of products is excellent!

PaperArtsy said...

Wow! An absolute delight of a box and the way you have pulled it together is amazing!

Julie said...

An amazing box. I just adore cherry blossom. So much detail in it. Just love those pinks! I chuckled to myself about the Blah Mange paint, my Grandad used to call blanmange blanc mange!

Lucy Edmondson said...

Beautiful! So clever! X