TGIF – Nature Shadowbox with Wanda + Save the Date

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Hello and happy Friday, friends! Wanda is here today with the most amazing project that I can’t wait for you to see! We’ll get to that in just a minute, but before we do, I wanted to let you know that we have some new products coming to the shop next week!

Our new Wild Elegance collection will hit the shop on Thursday, August 4. We’ll be sharing some sneak peeks next week along with one big day of reveals, projects, and a blog hop on Wednesday, August 3. Laurie will also be hosting an Instagram live on Wednesday as well at 11am central, noon ET. I hope you’ll join us for the fun!

Now on to Wanda’s amazing project! I know first hand how amazing this project is because it arrived at my home a few days ago. Wanda surprised me with this wonderful work of art. It’s sitting right next to my desk where I can admire it every day (thank you, Wanda!). She’s here to share all of the details with you…

Hi crafty friends! Wanda here! I’m so happy to be joining you today on The Greetery Blog for TGIF! It’s always my pleasure to share a project with you! Today’s project is not a card! And, it’s something very special, that I actually made for Betsy! When the new Jumbo Curiosity Dies came out recently, this project idea came into my brain like a flash, and I couldn’t wait to make it. And, luckily, it turned out exactly as I hoped it would. It has safely been received at The Greetery HQ so now it’s time to share! I hope I inspire you to make different projects besides cards with your beautiful Greetery stamps and dies! 

Today’s project is a botanical/entomological shadow box frame, filled with bugs and plants and wonderful things from nature…. Only it’s all paper! The shadow box frame is 9″x9″ and I bought it at Michaels. I used dark kraft tags as the basis for the scale, and amount of things to put into the box. It worked out perfectly to make eight different tags. I used loads of dies from The Greetery curio collection, and pretty stamps and labels. I used the new Honey Bees and Honeycomb Corners Dies for one of the tags…and two of my other favorites – the Toadstools and the Mighty Oak!! 

To start this project, I die cut everything out of watercolor paper first. I really wanted an illustration type of feeling. And watercolor paper always looks so rich. I laid out all the plain pieces on the tags to decide which items to use. Once I had my layout set, I used my favorite watercolor paints to color all the elements. It was really fun to paint all the die cuts, and bring them to life! Every tag has a bit of green on it to tie everything together. 

I set the painted elements aside to dry and went to work on the tags themselves. I splattered on some black and white paints. I used Pretty Postmarks, Destination and Curio Labels stamp sets to stamp on the tags and also stamp the small banners. I let everything sit overnight to dry, and finished the project the next morning. 

I used foam tape to attach the bugs and plants and other pretties to the tags. I also used foam tape to attach the tags to the shadow box backing piece. I added a few clear drop embellishments onto some of the tags and also a few bits of twine. 

So I’m laughing because I want to say “think outside the box” but I literally made A BOX! Ha. If you don’t want to make a shadow box, you could definitely make some of these watercolor tags and put a few on a card front, or into a scrapbook, or tie onto a gift!! Have a wonderful day, and happy crafting. From my studio to yours! 

GREETERY SUPPLIES:

• Curio Summer Findings die
• Curio Spring Findings die
• Curio Autumn Findings die
• Curio Divider & Details die
• Curio Divider & Details II die
• BotaniCuts Toadstool Garden die
• BotaniCuts Mighty Oak die
• Honey Bees die
• Plucked die
• Honeycomb Corners die
• Rustic Twigs die
• Curio Sentiments Stamps
• Crimped Circles die
• Pretext Banners die
• Pretty Postmarks stamp set
• Sentiment Suite Basics die
• Destination stamp set
  *****(might have been easier to say what products I DIDN’T use! LOL) 

OTHER SUPPLIES:

• 9×9 Shadow Box Frame (Michaels)
• Kraft Tags (Michaels)
• Mijello Mission Gold Watercolors 36 set
• Clear Drops
• Paintbrushes
• Black Ink Pad
• Adhesive
• Watercolor Paper