Graphicus June Challenge

This is my entry into the Graphicus June Challenge. The theme is exotic and the colours hot pink and orange. All of the stamps used are from Elusive Images. I thought through a few ideas before coming up with this necklace and gift box. Even then the beads of the necklace were a bit of an experiment with different inks as I don't really use shrink plastic that the beads are made from. I started by colouring a sheet of clear shrink with an orange sunset alcohol ink. Then stamping onto the reverse side with the daisy stamp using fuchsia pink Staz-on. For the pink beads I covered the shrink in the pink staz-on watered down with alcohol blending solution before stamping on the reverse with the pink staz on. The centre bead that the paisly mandala stamp has been attached to was stamped in black staz on and the paisley medallion has been stamped onto orange alcohol inked shrink, using pink staz-on, on the reverse. Before shrinking I made holes in the plastic with a crop-o-dile so that jump rings could be attached. The necklace has been finished off with a bar and ring fastener.
The box was made from card measuring 21cm by 18cm and I used a box maker to get the dimensions right. The lid of the box has been sponged with Tim Holtz marmalade distress ink, then stamped with a smaller paisley design using the pink staz-on and then over the top of that I have dragged the edge of the marmalade distress ink pad to make the line effect. The centre of the box has been decorated with the Paisley mandala that was used as the focal point for the necklace. I have painted the layers of the mandala using inktense pencils and then sponged over worn lipstick distress ink to the pink areas and marmalade distress ink to the orange areas. Peeled paint distress ink was used on the leaves. I finished off the mandala with dots of diamond stickles and mounted the whole thing on the box lid with silicone glue.

The box in-lay was made from a piece of card measuring 21cm by 18cm and scored like the box base but I added an extra score line so that a shallower box could be made as I folded it around the back making a sort of lip so that it rested in the base easily. I made cut outs for the necklace to thread through. The in-lay was then sponged with marmalade distress ink and then dabbed with the worn lipstick. Both the box and in-lay were decorated before being glued.