Love ATC Box Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day!! Today we are having a special blog hop on the Sizzix blog where the DT members have used dies from Eileen Hull's brand new collection From the Heart, together with dies from her previous collections. There are prizes to be won on the Sizzix blog too and the team has done a wonderful job as always. Don't miss all the other projects, so much inspiration!

If you follow my blog, you probably already know that I love Eileen's dies and all the things you can do with them. This time, I made an Artist Trading Card Box, filled with ATCs. I also used quite a few of other dies and lots of ink and stamps.

Here's the finished project. The Artist Trading Card Box die is such a great die, I can think of lots of things to do with it. I kept changing my mind about what colours to use on this project, finally deciding on a pretty traditional love colour combo. I made a step-by-step tutorial for how I did this:

 

The Artist Trading Card Box die is a movers & shapers die, so you can place other dies inside it and cut out a window. I used the label from Eileen's Heart & Label. Die cut the box from white mat board.

Stamp the vines from the Hero Arts Friend Collage stamp set and clear emboss, on both sides of the box, just remember to turn the stamp around when you stamp the back of the box.

Ink with Distress Inks and an ink blending tool. I used Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo. The embossed image resists the ink. Mat board inks beautifully.

Put a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Stain in a mini mister together with a small plastic bead (see this video by Tim Holtz for this fun technique). Shake and unscrew the mister. Tap the mister on your finger so that the ink splatters on your project. Dry with a heat gun, but be careful of burning the embossing powder.

When dry, stamp with a love definition stamp and Fired Brick ink. Hold the stamp in your hand instead of mounting it on a cling block, for a more random impression. I stamped it twice before inking it again.

Sentiments were stamped with Archival Jet Black ink on both sides and on the lid of the box.

I glued a piece of mica behind the label window, if you don't have mica, you can use vellum or acetate instead. For a vintage look, stain the acetate with alcohol ink. Place adhesive on both flaps. I used Wonder Tape. Assemble the box, which is very easy since the die both cuts and scores the mat board.

Time to make some flowers! Eileen has designed many flower dies, and it is fun to mix them with each other. I used the Wrapped Flower and cut a whole bunch of flowers from Core'dinations Kraft-Core, Tim Holtz tissue wrap, old book pages and dictionary page and tulle. I also die cut some flowers using the new Flower Layers w/Heart Petals die.

The Kraft-Core flowers were sanded, inked and shaped a bit, the dictionary flowers were inked and crumbled and the book page flowers were just inked. I crumbled up the tissue wrap flowers too, but didn't ink them (forgot to include them on this photo).

I used mainly Glossy Accents to assemble my flowers, starting from the flower centre and adding layer after layer, shaping the petals as I went a long. The last two layers are Heart Petal flowers and were glued to the rest with a hot glue gun, making sure some of the hot glue seeped up into the centre of the flower too.

I made two flowers and had enough to make a third one too. First I planned to use the bigger one on the ATC box, but it looked a bit too big on the box, so I picked the smaller one to the left instead. It has a flower trimmings centre.

The flowers were smeared with Distress Stickles Antique Linen.

Die cut leaves, a banner and a key from white cardstock, using the Hearts & More Sizzlits set.

Coat them with embossing ink and emboss with platinum embossing powder, melt and directly cover with a second layer of powder and heat again. Do one at a time and you'll have great little faux-metal embellishments. I did a heart too, from the same set of dies.

Glue the leaves to the box with Glossy Accents and the flower with hot glue.

I wanted the banner to just spell 'love' so I covered up everything except the heart with letter stickers. It was inked and glued over the label window.

 Here's a view of the box from the side.

The back of the box. I found different quotes about love, and used them on my ATCs.

Cut ATCs from smooth cream cardstock and stamp with Archival Jet Black ink. I used stamps from Tim Holtz, Darkroom Door and Artistic Outpost.

Ink the images with Distress Inks. I used a marker on the tiniest areas (the alphabet), a craft nib for the slightly larger areas (such as the flowers, birds and number) and an ink-blending tool everywhere else.

To add texture and bling, I applied Platinum Stickles and Crackle Accents on a few places on the cards. The quotes were printed on ledger paper and cut into strips.

You might see that there is Crackle Accents on the flowers. The crinkle ribbon was dyed with Distress Stains Victorian Velvet and Barn Door.

The lace trim was dyed with Antique Linen Distress Stain. There is Crackle Accents on the number and Platinum Stickles on the crown.

The flower trim was dyed with Antique Linen.

On this ATC I used an embossed key and a piece of twine. There is Platinum Stickles on the 'a'.

I am fond of using quotes, and this project was perfect for that.

Crackle Accents on the flowers and a pen nib pointing at the letter in the man's hand.

I am finishing the post with this lovely qoute and two happy birds.

These are the blogs you'll want to visit:

Eileen Hull

Amy Friend

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here!)

Gretchen Schmidt

Hilary Kanwischer

Jan Hobbins

Jeanne Streiff

Richele Christensen

Shelly Hickox

Tammy Roberts

Tammy Tutterow

Tiffany Johnson

Sizzix Blog

Thank you for looking at this long post!!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Artist Trading Card Box, Wrapped Flower, Flower Layers w/Heart Petals, Heart & Label, Hearts & More Sizzlits set,
Surfaces: Sizzix Little Sizzles Mat Board white 6x13; Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Melange tissue wrap; Neenah cream smooth cardstock; old book and dictionary paper; tulle
Stamps: Hero Arts: Friend Collage AC022, Be SIlly CL635; Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Stuff to Say, The Boys, Love Struck; Darkroom Door: Love Letters Vol.1, Love Letters Vol. 2 Artistic Outpost Think & Wonder, Windows & Doors, Bluebird
Ink: Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Vintage Photo, Barn Door, Fired Brick; Archival Ink Jet Black; Ranger Emboss-It clear dabber
Stain: Distress Stain Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Picket Fence
Stickles: Platinum Stickles, Antique Linen Distress Stickles
Embossing powder: Ranger clear and platinum
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-olgy trimmings ribbon; US ArtQuest Mica; lace trim; pearls
Adhesive: Ranger Glossy Accents, Crackle Accents, Wonder Tape; hot glue