Love Notes
Love Notes
This little box has stored love notes written by family members for years now and it was time for it to have a revamp. I kind of knew how I wanted it to look but was really waiting for the right digital kit to bring me some inspiration.
Then I saw Nesting Instinct from Kellie Mize over at The Digi Chick and it suddenly all came together.
A match made in heaven!
Here are some of the items I used. The usual glue, paper punches, scissors and elements for use in decorating the final product. I gathered up ribbons and flowers but wasn’t sure what colours were going on until the patterned paper was on the box.
The patterned papers in the kit were printed on Epson Premium Presentation Paper. I had roughly measured each section of the box, added a bit extra then made little templates for each piece. After reducing the size of the pp to about 7×7 (instead of the usual 12×12) I layered it down and pulled the pieces onto a new page the size of the Epson Paper. A bit of fudging allowed me to get all the pieces of PP and the Alpha on 3 sheets.
Using the glue stick I pasted the uncut alpha onto two more layers of scrap pp. This made them a lot thicker and sturdier but not as thick as chipboard.
Leaving those to dry then next thing was to trim up all the pieces of pre-planned paper to fit the box perfectly. The idea was to make them slightly smaller than the area they were intended for.
Some of the pieces had to be shaped to fit. Either end of the top was arched and neither was the same. Custom cutting helped here – as does marking each pp and the matching end it needed to go on. Nothing worse than having to try and remove something that you realise is wrong when you come to do the other end. 
Then using a Making Memories paper distressing tool, to create some texture and shabbiness, I ran along all the edges of each patterned paper.
Then lightly inked the edges with a light brown stamp pad for more shabby’ness!
After that it was time to stick all the various shaped to their corresponding position on the box.
Here you can see the paper pieces don’t quite meet the edges of the box. Perfect! Exactly the effect I was aiming for.
Isn’t that alpha just gorgeous! Now you know why I was compelled to use this kit.
The letters were dry by now and ready to be cut out. A very fine pair of scissors like the Cutterbee’s are essential for this job. Some of those corners are very tight and normal scissors just don’t get around in there. A craft knife or scalpel works well too though I tend to be hard on them and they break.
Then it was just a case of decorating it to look pretty. After experimenting with some doily punched paper and various ribbons I settled on this simple gathered brown one and let the gorgeous paper and alpha from Kellie shine.
The alpha is attached, as is the ribbon, with hot glue. I like to put a big glob on the area’s that need to be raised (a bit like mounting tape). Let that cool slightly, then put a smear or dab of hot glue on the lower areas – like where it will touch the ribbon and place it into position. Don’t leave it too long though, or the big blogs will cool too much to stick.
Some matching flowers, a bit of bling and the box was like new again. Just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Hoping your day is filled with Love.
Happy Valentines Day.
Other Articles by Shabby Shaz:
- Australia Day Celebrations: Cupcake Toppers - January 19th, 2011
- Digital Layout to Paper Layout Challenge - July 3rd, 2010
- Digital to Hybrid Layout - June 28th, 2010
- Hybrid Key Holder - May 14th, 2010
- Wedding Gift Frame - March 5th, 2010
