Summer Brights Box

My mojo has been MIA lately... so I decided to give myself a night of no pressure creative time.  All I knew was that I would use stencils and paste so I could play along with The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge :) Since money has been tight, I don't have many new purchases to play with... but I did purchase texture paste and a few colors of Dina Wakley's paints after teaching some recent classes, so I figured they would be my starting point!  These Sizzix dies are another summer purchase that I've been having some fun with!

This project started as a tag, but once I finished it I decided to keep going, playing with more paints and such on a 5x7 piece of cardstock.  I enjoyed just playing without a goal in mind as far as finished project, and it definitely got me experimenting with products (even some glitter, which is not the norm for me!  I mixed it with Rock Candy Crackle Paint... kinda fun!).  When I was done with this, I had a 'thing' that I wasn't sure what to do with...  but I noticed a small, sturdy box (from my very first julep nail polish order!) that was just slightly smaller than 5x7.  I painted it up to match the front, which I reinforced a bit and adhered to the box.  Bonus- the filling inside the box is the same turquoise color :)

I took a bunch of photos so hopefully you can get a good look at the textures and cheery colors.  Hard to believe summer is almost over... this project was a fun 'last hurrah' before I move on to some autumn colors!

I'm not sure I captured it very well, but I even played with some beeswax on the background for my first time :)  Here's one final photo that shows the size of the box I attached it to:

The box allows me to display it as a stand up 'canvas' of sorts... probably in our wanna-be beach theme bathroom ;) 

There's still time for you to play along with the stencils & paste challenge- it's monthly, which I love.  It's a new blog, so show them some love!  Now that I'm done, I can go check out what everyone else has been doing!