A recycling project - settle in, long post ahead!

I don't know about you, but I've been eyeing everyday items lately. Usually I make cards, but this box seemed the perfect size for 'extras'. Originally it was the box for my Xyron Cheetah refill - now it's an excellent looking addition to my organizational products! lol Well, what I *wish* were my organizational products! ;)

Unfortunately I didn't start with a plan (hint: start with a plan!) so I did twice the work that was needed. It took me quite a while to fit together basic white card stock to cover all of the name brand stuff - my box was black, blue & orange but you can get the basic idea here. I thought I would cover it with thinner paper (stamped, of course!) and was worried that the colors would show through and make everything look wonky. Since the box wasn't exactly square (hey, it was stored for quite a while!) it was a task of monumental proportions to cover all the important bits. Of course I decided to cover it with a thick scrapbook paper after all that work. Of course I did. :roll eyes: I went to work and covered it again, this time trying to do an even better job. There were some flubs, but they're hardly noticeable now. :)

Once it was covered and glued down (and dried, again) I used my Tim Holtz flourish mask & added some new glittery VersaMark - but the sparkle wasn't enough! Perfect Pearls to the rescue! So, gold PP were dusted over the versamark - you can't even tell it started as the champagne color.

Here's a better shot of the gold (from head on you can barely tell they're there, even IRL). Yes, I did use the mask on everything except the bottom. You have to love the shimmer of perfect pearls! lol That, and I love the flourish mask to death....

Ah, do you see that gorgeous flower? I have a confession to make about that flower. I saw a video recently, in the last week I think, that showed how to make this flower. While I would love to share that video with you (and give credit, of course) I CAN'T FIND IT! I have searched through all of my history for the last three weeks; nothing. I went and searched through COTW (and got a little distracted); nada. I went through my Google Reader; zip. I know it was a post by a woman whose friend made her a quick video of how to do it (so the friend did the vid, not the poster) and I *think* she was from somewhere in Europe?! If this rings a bell for anyone, *at all*, please let me know!

So, I'll try to give you the basics that I followed. Using a large piece of white tissue paper I cut a bunch of circles using my Cuttlebug with a circle Nestie. And I do mean a *bunch*. I think there are 17 layers of circles in that flower! Because I wanted a close color match I chose to spray Walnut Ink (Tsukineko) on my craft mat and lay all the circles down. Then I spritzed with water and more ink until I liked the base color. While they were still (very) wet I pounced them with my Peony Scarlet Red Starburst Stain. (This came from Lindy's Stamp Gang - if you like Glimmer Mist, you will LOVE these - trust me!) I spritzed more water and pounced more color all over (all the circles were overlapping) then spritzed with more water & let them dry overnight. You can get a little bit of an idea of the glimmer of the SS in the pic.

The next day I folded the dried circles in half and stapled them in about the center of the circle (right next to the fold). Well, two of the circles were folded in quarters and stapled at the point - for the center. Then I just opened and stacked them up, using glue dots since they were handy. I checked every now and then to make sure everything looked good and spaced the bottom circles accordingly. Yes, I built it from the top down - easier to make sure you're still looking flower-like instead of blob-like! :) Finally I added the top two (mushed up next to each other) and did a little gentle scrunching. Ta Dah! It really takes much longer to write it out than to actually do it!

A little brown ribbon and a large brownish eyelet later and I was all finished. I think I'll do it again - perhaps in blue? What do you think? Like it?

As always, I appreciate your visit!