Box of Delights

Hello and welcome everyone - thank you so much for stopping by today.  There's a new challenge starting today at eclectic Paperie, hosted by Bonnie, who has challenged us to use Corrugated Cardboard - yay!!  Regulars will know that's music to my ears...  You'll find all the details of the challenge here, and there's a prize voucher sponsored by Kim at eP to be won, so I really hope you'll come and play along.

Two projects collided on my craft table this week, and so this corrugated cardboard construction also features some wonderful new images from Nicecrane Designs... the Fascinating Babies.  I'll give you links to them as well as to all the yummy eP ingredients at the foot of the post, but let's get down to business first.





May I introduce you to the Box of Delights?



Here's the exterior of the piece...



...front...














...and back...


(You'll get to see the sides later, never fear!)











...and you've just seen a hint of what might happen when you open it out, like this...

The five Fascinating Babies in this Nicecrane set are both hilarious and slightly disturbing - perfect chubby babies engaged in activities way beyond their years, with varying degrees of success.  (Click this for a bigger view, and there are close-ups further down, of course!)



Let me take you on a quick tour of the piece... I'll try not to talk too much - though there are lots of photos... it's one of those kinds of pieces, I'm afraid.

I keep saying "piece" because I'm not sure what to call it really - it's just the shape the cardboard was after I'd rescued it from packaging duty to live a life of creative fulfilment...

It was a pretty unprepossessing strip of folded cardboard, which had obviously held something within another box.

Five is a strange number to deal with, but the cardboard is also slightly weird: asymmetrical, and with big creases in irregular places (though once you fold it, you see that it all works out).






That's when the magical collision happened: the babies were lying on one side of the table, the cardboard on another, having just been stripped, and my brain just said: "What if....?"

And lo and behold they sat beautifully on the cardboard - along the long edges, between the creases.  And there's something rather pleasing to me about the asymmetricality of it - quirky, like the Babies themselves.

On the outside/back, you can see the results of some further experiments with the Gelli Plate (the first outing was as part of the Background Noise yesterday if you missed it).

I used paints that would echo the colours on the images inside, and pressed various Crafter's Workshop stencils onto my painty surface to give some more texture.

I've still got lots to learn about making successful monoprints but I'm having a lovely (messy) time finding out!

It was an act of faith to start cutting them up, and one of those miraculous moments when it turned out that the 12 strips (each of the four prints cut into 3 strips) were the exact right amount to cover the back of my corrugated cardboard strip!






Once trimmed to fit, they did of course get a touch of inking around the edges with Walnut Stain.











I also added some sentiments from the Donna Downey Empowered Words set which set the tone for what you'll meet inside...

They're stamped on handmade (not by me... yet) paper in Coffee Archival and inked for a grungier look.

There's an Idea-ology Bookplate glued on at either end... Be Bold on the bolder coloured monoprint, and Be True on the subtler one.

And the crinkle ribbon is, of course, dyed with some more inks and stains to tone in with the general colour accents.













Once you get inside, the Babies themselves are mounted on chipboard and layered onto some more of the handmade paper, gesso'd burlap, and then of course you have the corrugated cardboard background...












I just love the roughened texture you get from part-peeled cardboard.  This has also had a rough, random coating of gesso and various Distress Paints and Stains to add even more texture as well as to highlight what's already there.


There are some more Empowered Words attached to each of the images... very deliberately selected, of course!

The steampunk baby has chosen mechanical empowerment - but it doesn't seem to be working out that well!  He'll find out the power of self-empowerment some day soon.














She couldn't possibly live any more "inspired", could she?  She's crafting!  I love how she is so completely absorbed in what she's doing...












Love the toddler reaching for something almost beyond his grasp... and achieving it.












I hope this little guy will find his inner courage soon... or else build a bigger ark.













And the feminist marching for Equality, speaking out, is probably my favourite: you go, girl!

On the narrower columns, I've added further inspirational quotes, mounted on padded tape, with some Idea-ology metal accents... all still about the belief, strength and power you'll need to take you through life.

One more open and shut case... 

...and a final, epic panoramic view...

... brings us to the end of another epic post.  

Thank you so much if you've stuck with it this far!

I hope this has given you some inspiration to join in with the Corrugated Cardboard challenge at eclectic Paperie, and if you visit the blog you'll see more inspiration from my fabulous teammates linked up with the letters DT after their names.  You can also click on any of the links below to take you straight to the ingredients used today.

And if it's Ignacio's fabulous pictures that have tempted you, then you'll find the Fascinating Babies right here; and check out all the other wonderful digital images available at Nicecrane Designs - there really is something for everyone!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope to see you again soon - either here, or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.

It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born.  This is not necessarily cause for alarm.  The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.
Elinor Goulding Smith





I'd like to enter this in the following:
At the Inspiration Journal, they'd like us to Add a Little Pop - there's the mounted dimensionality of the Fascinating Babies, sentiments popped on padded tape, as well as the whole inside popping out at you when you open it up!
I'll go for some more Pick and Mix at Country View Challenges
At Crafty Emblies, they are now an Anything Goes challenge with teams for both Altered Art and PaperCrafting - to be honest, I'm not sure where this goes!
At Unruly Paper Arts, they would like us to Add an ATC: the five Fascinating Babies are each ATC-sized
The Southern Girls are playing The Kids Are Alright (well I'm not entirely sure about some of this lot, but if they follow the sentiments, they should be!)

Click on the link to go to the product: