Old Time Box

    I am pleased to announce that I have been lucky enough to join the All Crafts Challenge Design Team and this is my first project with them. The challenge is for anything BUT cards, knitting, crochet, altered art, jewelry, absolutely any craft BUT cards so it's just up my street.  The challenge runs for two months giving ample time for you to create a masterpiece of your own.

    This little wooden box was given to me by a Friend who was clearing out some of her stash, thanks Maggie, hope you like how it turned out.
 

I have used a selection of die cut cogs, numbers, clock hands, hinges and locks to cover the box. These are cut from thin greyboard and glued on with Cosmic Shimmer glue. 

    Once the box was covered with the shapes I wanted I began to cover it with aluminium tape. This tape is readily available in most iron mongers and builders merchants but I found mine in a garden centre!

Rather than try and cut a perfect strip to use I have cut small squares and rectangles and overlapped some of them, giving quite a random pattern, this helps hide any little faults. Work a small area at a time, once a shape is covered with tape use a large ball tool to gently ease the tape into all the gaps and round the outline, don't worry if you split it, just add another small piece of tape over it and it all becomes part of the pattern!

     Along some of the joins I have used a small ball tool to make little indents, they look like a row of rivets.
    When the box was completely covered with tape and all the shapes were worked I used a black acrylic paint dabber to cover the entire box. Before it all dried I rubbed some of it off with a tissue so that the joins and crevices looked dirty.
     We are being sponsored by Crafty Individuals for this challenge so I have used one of their stamps to make a label on top of the box. It is stamp #279 Clock Maker on cream card in Coffee Archival Ink and clear embossed. It has also been stamped with another Crafty Individuals stamp #116 Crackle Background in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. My Crafty Individual stamps came from Aldridge Crafts. The label has been glued on and painted over with a matte medium from Eco Green.
     The base of the box is covered with a green baize so it won't scratch any surface it's put on. The inside is part aluminium and part baize, this was done by making paper patterns of the inside shapes and then cutting the baize after, it could be done with a thin felt if you have no baize.
     I hope you come and join us at the All Crafts Challenge, it will come up as Craft My Life, don't worry you're in the right place, just click on the flower link on the righthand side to go straight to the challenge. We don't have many rules so pop over and take a look, you could win a great prize for your creation too.

I would like to enter this box in the following challenges:

Shopping Our Stash - Faux Technique (metal work)
Frilly and Funky - Time After Time
Altered Eclectics - Altered Art
The Artistic Stamper - Embossing and Texture
Natalie and Amy - Embossing (Box - dry, Label -heat)
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Altered Art