Twizzle Tree Box

It has been a while since I posted a project instead of a card, so I thought it was about time to do another one. 

When Dave taught his recent classes, I noticed how crazy everyone was about the Twizzle Tree (E1284).  The card they made in the class was colored with bright shades of Prismacolor pencil, but really, the tree works or all seasons and occasions.

For my box, I started with a pain wooden box I bought for a dollar a craft store.  My starting box looked like this:

Here is an inside shot of the box:

Okay, it was rather plain, but what do you expect for a dollar?  :)  I sanded the box and then "stained" it with a few drops of Vintage Photo Distress Ink reinker mixed with water.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished stained box by itself.  Rats!  I applied the reinker/water mixture with a foam paintbrush to the outside and inside of the box and then let my box dry completely.

To make the top of the box, I stamped my tree onto Dewfrost paper using brown pigment ink and then embossed it with clear ink.  The reason I embossed the tree was that I knew I would add ink on top of the tree later, and I didn't want the bottom layer of ink to bleed or to contaminate my Versamark pad.  (**special note...I think I should have used brown Staz on instead since all the embossing later still made the brown ink bleed a little).  I then aged the edges of my cardstock with Vintage Photo Distress ink since I knew it would match the color I stained the box.  Here is what it looked like:

Next, I stamped the tree onto the snowflake patterned paper from the Dewfrost collection in brown ink and embossed it with clear powder.  I then cut out the "leaves" and layered them onto my original tree.  Sorry my photo is out of focus!

I wanted the top of the box to look like it had a tile on the top of it.  To create a faux tile, I covered the entire surface of my paper with Versamark ink and embossed it with Interference Blue Ultra Thick Embossing Powder.  If you don't have Ultra Thick powder, you can use regular embossing powder instead.  It will just take you more layers of powder to get the same look.  Here is my cardstock with the first layer of powder:

Interference blue powder has a slight blue sheen to it, so I only used it for one layer.  I didn't want to obscure the tree underneath it in any way.  I heated the powder until it melted and then immediately added clear powder on top while it was still hot and gooey and would hold the second layer of powder.  I heated the second layer and then added more clear powder and heated it until I achieved the look I wanted.  Here is what the finished piece looked like:

The bottom layer of interference blue powder gave the finished piece a marbled look that I rather liked.  Of course, plain clear powder for all the layers would have worked just fine too.  I added some diamond jewels to the top and then heated the whole thing again with my heatgun.  While the powder was hot and melted, I pushed the jewels down so that they would be embedded in the melted embossing powder when it cooled and hardened.

To finish the box, I added some distressed strips of snowflake paper to the sides with a gluestick and then covered the edges with Diamond Glaze that I applied using a paintbrush.  I chose Diamond Glaze because it is so strong when it dries and because it looks similar to lacquer.  I attached my top piece to the box with more Diamond Glaze.  I had to hold my piece in place until the Diamond Glaze had a chance to dry.  When you make a faux tile piece using embossing powder, it has a tendency to curl a bit.  You will need a strong adhesive to hold it down flat when you are done.

Here is the top of the box:

I hope this inspires you to try making your own boxes.  It is just about the time of year to start planning gifts if you plan to make something homemade!

Comments

[stampersuzz]

Lovely! Love all the pictures and tutorial!

[Kelly Booth]

LOVE this the card and the box both are just AWESOME!!! Wow.....

[Heidi]

That is gorgeous! Great tutorial for it too.

[Linda Beeson]

This is amazingly wonderful! WOW on that yummy thickness on the top of the box and what a cute image.

[shellybobrowski]

oh my! this is just gorgeous,fabulous! thanks for all the instructions cant wait to try this!!

[Patter Cross]

Well, you have inspired me to make one! This is STUNNING! Thanks for the great idea and instructions!

[Tami]

I love your project and the tutorial. One of my fav. stamps from the newest release.