"Perfect Keepsakes" - Shadowbox Layout

Happy Friday Bloggers.

This blog comes with a warning... it's long, detailed and might even make you tear up... proceed at your own discretion.  lol



I have spend the most part of today out and about.  Shopping for these really awesome shoes I've been wanting.  If you follow my Instagram you'd know what I'm talking about.  They've been on my mind for the past week and I vowed not to spend one dime on any crafts goodies just to get them.  So today I was able to, along with other things like clothes and gifts for family... Which brings me to this blog.  I am not sure if you know, but I was asked by my first niece to make her wedding invitations.  I stressed about it since last year and was finally able to complete and ship them back in April.  I haven't showed you what I created because I wanted to wait until closer to the wedding, when I know for sure everyone got their invite; so as not to spoil anything for them... and then I just got distracted with smashing and hanging out, that I've put it off.  But, I promise to share with you that project before I leave to NY. 

My sister and brother in law asked me what I would charge them for the invites I made and I didn't want to charge anything.  They are my close CLOSE family and I honestly felt very humbled and flattered that they would even consider trusting me with something soooo important and serious.  Well, after she kept "harassing" me on skype about it she finally tells me that she and her husband would like to give us a gift.  She kept asking me what I would like to pay me for my hard work and services... I kept saying nothing and whatever... lol.  So after a few minutes of this back and forth giggle we had, she finally said that they had something in mind to give us (hubby and myself) and that whatever it is I have to promise to say yes to it.  So, she then goes on to say that they would like to pay for our roundtrip tickets to NY, to be able to attend the wedding.  Our plan was always to go to the wedding and be with family.  It's been 5 years since I go to NY, so I was just about due.  But we honestly hadn't saved up the money to be able to get the tickets in one shot and I was dreading having to tell my niece that I was probably not going to make it.  Or if I go, maybe hubby won't go.  In any case, after I heard my sister say that I started to cry.  In front of mom, in front of everyone over at her house on skype, in front of dad.  I was just so emotionally taken over with shock that I started to cry, and I couldn't stop for several minutes.  Made my mom cry, my sister, my niece, my brother in law... lol.  I could NOT BELIEVE they offered something so nice and so expensive!!  lol  But I was not about to say no.  All I kept thinking was how I'd be able to see my first niece walk down the aisle, how I'd be able to spend time with family.  Go to NY and eat at our favorite restaurants.  Have some delicious pizza and Chinese food.  Take Giovanni to sight-see, etc.  

So I wanted to repay my sister with something, to thank her for the gracious gift, but I wasn't sure what until a month ago.  Today's project share is what I made yesterday.  This 8x8 shadow box layout took a little less than 3 hours and I am super excited for her to receive it.  

This first pic shows the the mess I had upon starting...



Her favorite color is blue, so I knew I wanted to use the Antique Paperie Collection by Colorbok, and use the WOC flowers I had in stock.  The only problem I foresaw was that the photos my niece gave me to were mostly pink.  So I decided to gray-out and darken the photos (my sister doesn't like photos of herself), and use them that way.




Many of the items you see on my desk weren't used,
but I like to have an array of embellishments handy to give me freedom to create.

I added some Recollections bling, shabby resin treasures, butterflies & flowers, a piece a burlap, my 6x6 chicken wire stencil (my fav!), some shabby beige trim that I received in a RAK from Sharon SMScrapper, Walnut Stain distress ink, epoxy stickers & rub-ons from the collection nd the rest was all Wild Orchid Crafts flowers.



And here is the finished product.   

I didn't photograph the layout inside the shadowbox, because of the glare.  
I wanted to capture everything with no distractions.







For the card, I used more of the paper from the Antique Paperie collection and added a distressed doily halfway down the top.  Over that I added the same trim that Sharon sent me with flatback pearls from KarlaS001's etsy shop.  Then I decorated it with more WOC flowers and Martha Stewart punched out butterflies and a doily, an epoxy sticker and some pearls. 





             I distressed everything with walnut stain and finished the inside with pattered paper and rub-ons.





I hope you enjoyed today's project share.  I will be sharing a video on youtube of this some time this weekend, so if you care to see that, I will update this blog post and include a video clip.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this very long blog and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

x0, Damaris



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