My first exploding box!

Earlier this month it was my crafty friend Judith's birthday. I wanted to make something special for her as she had been feeling really poorly with a horrible virus. I decided to have a go at making my first ever exploding box card. I have been really inspired by the work of another Elaine on her Magic Boxes blog and in particular, this amazing Indian inspired box which was commissioned by a chap for his wife - lucky girl.

I started with this lovely Persian Shrine stamp from Lost Coast, available from Happy Daze. I embossed the arch in fine silver EP and then cut out the shape and inked panels to go underneath in my favourite Adirondack dye inks over little stars stamped with a Lavinia stamp embossed in clear EP and a Viva clear flourish stamped in archival black ink. I mounted these panels on dark blue and turquoise card layers.  

I made a lid from more blue card and decorated it with the beautiful Elusive Images Indian Flower mandala stamp, glittered in shades of blue, with self adhesive jewels added. I decorated the edges of the box with glitter card and a phrase from the gorgeous set of abbey stamps CI 286 from Crafty Individuals, embossed again in silver.

I decorated the inside of the box with panels stamped with a tree stamp CI 209 from Crafty Individuals,  this gorgeous vine leaf and tiny slender mushroom stamps from Lavinia. Once again I shaded with the Adirondack dye inks in various shades of blue applied with Cut 'n' Dry foam. The central panel was stamped with the vine stamp, decorated with dark blue fabric flowers, with an oval panel with the delight stamp which is from a Hero Arts set. I added a couple of little stamped dragonflies whose wings had been painted with Opal Dust paint.

As always I love this kind of inking, building up the depth of colour and getting a sort of glow in the centre of the panels. I have to say it took me ages to put this together, but I was quite pleased with the end result and felt it had been worth the effort.

Last but not least, if you haven't already seen it, do pop over to the blog of the very talented Lynn Brown of LB Crafts where she has a very generous Tim Holtz giveaway going on until the New Year - someone is going to be a very happy bunny!

Elaine