Challenge #23 at Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Dollar Store Finds and a Digi Stamp

Good morning, Bloggers!

I'm thinking this is going to be a quick post as it's 4:30 AM and I haven't been to bed yet. I'm a night owl by nature but this is even past MY bedtime! Today is Wednesday again and therefore, it's time for another challenge at Amber's Crafts and Stuff. This will be my last project for Amber as she has decided that running a challenge blog is taking too much time away from her family. I'm a little sad about this news because hers was my very first design team and I have enjoyed working with Amber as well as my teamies over the past several months. My initial term would have ended in September anyway so it's really only a couple of challenges early, I guess. I'm still an active member of 2 other design teams, for The Outlawz and JustWords Stamps and I'll have a new project for JustWordz on Friday and one for The Outlawz on Saturday! Whew! Busy week!

Anyway, this week the challenge theme at Amber's is Dollar or Pound Store Finds plus our sponsor, Nikki of  Limited Runs Digis was kind enough to give us a digi to work with that we were supposed to incorporate into our projects. Well, after visiting 2 different dollar stores, I didn't find anything that really excited me and since I was using the digi, whatever I created had to be at least part paper or something that would work with a paper butterfly at least because the design I chose is a wonderful whimsical butterfly. What I ended up doing was buying a real cheap plain white jewelry-type gift box and altering the top of it. I created a pretty water scene by using a paper with a watercolor water pattern on it. This paper had been in my stash for ages so I don't know who made it or if it's even still available but I know I bought it at Jo-Ann's. I covered the lid in this patterned paper and used one of my Martha Stewart border punches to create a border to go around the lid of the box because I had not quite enough to cover the entire lid completely. I also added a strip of lace and ribbon (it came as one piece on a spool, also from Jo-Ann's) and some pearls that I tinted with my Copic marker #BG13 to add just a touch of bling.  I printed the butterfly provided by Limited Runs Digis and colored it with Copics, then put a thin coat of Golden's Pearl Glaze over it and a coat of Diamond Glaze over that.  The result was that it now has the appearance of a piece of Cloisonne jewelry! I love how it turned out. Well, the box was still waaay too bare for my liking so I printed a couple of water lili digis that I aquired from Sweet Coloring Pages in different sizes, colored them up with Copics and coated them with the Diamond Glaze as well. I was almost satisfied but not quite. You see, I'm a "more is more" kinda girl so I just can't leave well enough alone most of the time unless I really try hard. I added 4 corner pieces that came in a package of K & Company 3D chipboard embellishments and a dragonfly, also from K & Company, that I thought went pretty well with the butterfly. I popped all the elements except for the smaller water lily and the corner pieces up on Pop Dots to give it some dimension.  It was really starting to look like something now! I had some mini Scrabble tiles and used them to create a title, or greeting if you prefer, for my project and I was done! Here it is...

I can't say this is my all time favorite project but I think it turned out rather cute!  I hope you like it.  Please feel free to leave a comment if you wish.  I love reading your thoughts, opinions and suggestions.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll see you back here on Friday with another project for JustWordz (unless I can muster the energy and creativity to make something tomorrow).  I hope you all enjoy your Wednesday and the rest of your week.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee