Boxes and Hearts

 Here is the box I decorated for Inkylicious. I saw it in Dunelm Mill for £3.99 and immediately loved it. It has a small chalkboard behind the picture, which I had thought about painting onto, but the colour and texture of the wood made me think of the beach, so I added a beach scene, using the windswept stamp, on silk art card and some shells. I ummed and ahhed about whether to add anything else, but Meg said it was fine as it was so I left it. 

 Here is a close-up of the lid. the larger shells were collected from the Norfolk coast a few years ago, and have been in a bowl in my bathroom ever since. the tiny shells were bought on the east coast - a bag full for £1.00! I found some sand in a bucket in my garage which we had bought a couple of years ago when nowhere had any salt left in the snow. I managed to spill sand all over my craft space and had to spend Sunday clearing it all off as everything was crunching! Next time I will use sandpaper - much less messy! Magic hands used it as the cup of chance on the show, which made me laugh - hope no more sand escaped!

I also found a wooden heart in The Range for 99p. I gessoed it and then tried stamping on it but the images lost their definition with water based ink and I didn't have the shades I wanted in any other ink. I gessoed and started again. Next I tried stamping in acrylic paint and it worked brilliantly. I used docrafts pearlised acrylic in blues and purples, dusting just a bit of purple ink over too. The sentiment was stamped in Versamagic ink and comes from the 'Simply Said' stamp sheet. They tried to show this on Create and Craft, but the lights were way too strong, and the pearlised paint reflected them!Hope this photo in my porch on a dull day gives you a better idea!
Thanks for looking!