Rusty Tin Trunk....

Good morning everyone
Welcome to my newest followers; thank you so much for joining me on my creative journey. I do hope that you'll stay and be inspired and that your own journey will be blessed.

A special someone celebrated a bit of a milestone birthday recently and I know that she has received her gift so I thought I'd share it with you today.

I started out with a paper mache suitcase from The Craft Barn. (This is the smaller of the set) What I wanted to do is try and create the look and feel of a rusty old tin trunk. Something that's been round the block a bit...... so using a metal paint and activator I set to work. To create the leather I used  fired brick distress stain and rock candy distress crackle and walnut stain. I stamped onto the straps before the crackle too for interest. I think it turned out pretty cool! Some stickers to finish. One battered old trunk, rescued from the Titanic perhaps?
But like the old saying, you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, or in this case the contents by the suitcase....
When you open it; the interior is rich gold and the content's rather rich too.

I made the books using Katzelkraft stamps onto mountboard covers. Coloured with stains in wild honey, fired brick and forest moss. Two layers of clear UTEE, on the second  layer I stamped into while still warm using the same background stamp. When cool I highlighted aspects of the embossing with Inka gold before added a final layer of UTEE and heating.

The end result is a beautiful enamelled finish but with a trapped layer of gold. Not too easy to see in the photo but it gives a lovely dimension and richness.

This is the back and I made the book using the Bind it all. The reason for this gift is that during the course of the coming year the recipient wants to do *0* (a certain number) of things. A bit like the "things to do before you..." list but this is going to be all the little things that would be nice to do, little treats like tea at the ritz, a paddle in the sea, going for a fish pedicure, watching a sunrise.........
So in this book the idea can be noted and the details of when it was achieved noted too.

Hope you all have a fab day and are blessed in your journey, till later.....