Shadowbox Tray

Thought I would share the Shadowbox Tray I did for CHA with the new Conservatory paper collection.
The new tray is 12 x 16" and is much deeper than the Letterbox tray or the Artist Printers tray (maybe 3/4").  Love the way it looks just sitting on an easel (the easel does not come with the tray).  The new paper is perfect for the look of the tray too. 
Almost everything in the tray comes from my own collections of junk, with the exception of the optical lens in the top right corner and the industrial gears in the large bottom section and the metal label holders (one of my favorite products).
Love this project...hope you do too!

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1.  Button card
2.  Layered paper (Mesofauna, Feather and Magpie).  The blue feather is cut from Feather paper and raised with 2 foam squares.  Added two vintage bobbins.
3.  More of that cheesecloth I dyed in tea, vintage flower and a twig from the lilac bush in my backyard.
4.  Optical lens (new from 7gypsies).  I cut a skinny branch from my lemon tree to use in this square.  Once it was cut to size I threaded the optical lens on the branch, then added some leaves on the side.
5.  Mesofauna paper background.  Old bottle.  I printed the word "abundance" on a piece of paper, aged it a bit and wrapped it around the old bottle. Easy.
6.  Mesofauna paper and a bundle of lavender tied with brown and white string.


7.  The center section was little more challenging because of the shape.  I ended up covering the entire section with the back of Mesofauna paper (the back of Mesofauna is text from a book, plain but perfect).  Once the back was in place, I cut pieces from the front side of Mesofauna and Butterfly and Flora and layered them on top of the book text. The paper on the left side with the blue writing, I adhered to a piece of chipboard and aged just like I did back in the post on the "Forgotten Repository" piece (July 29th post).  I also did not glue down the top part of the wings of the butterfly on the very right so they lift off the tray. 

I also added in pieces of ripped paper that once glued down I rolled back parts with my finger.  See bottom left corner of the center section.  There is also one below the butterfly (see picture above).  All the layers just add to the dimension.
The wreath in the center is part of a bird nest I bought at Michael's some years ago.  I just pulled it apart enough to clip away the top half for the wreath shape.  I printed the little verse and threaded it into the wreath.  It is hung with twill tape I dyed and an upholstery tack.  Love that you can nail things into the wood!  This is when I added the bird that was left after I cut out section 5.  I liked the little bird peeking out from inside the wreath. 

8.  These are 3 rolls of vintage blanket binding I found in a junk store in Payson, AZ.  (which by the way we will be teaching a class in Payson next month...with a little junking afterward).  The paper wrapped around the blanket binding is cut from Feather.
9.  Number 9 and 11 are both butterflies cut from the paper Butterfly.  I glued them to a piece of cardstock and cut them out to give them a little weight so the wings would stay up after I adhered them with a foam square.  The background is the back of the same paper.
10.  Same back paper as 9 and 10.  Vintage metal button.
12.  Back is paper Magpie.  Piece of driftwood with a phrase cut from an old book.
13.  Old book paper just ripped and shoved into to the square.  Added my favorite little cotton string and a wooden spool that I added the word "love" to, just like the bottle before.
14.  Paper from Flora.  I nailed a small metal industrial gear on the left side of the box.  Then I nailed another on the exact opposite side.  I wound some wire around this nail a few times and then pulled it across the box to the small gear and cut it a few inches longer than the box.  Gotta love those Tim Holtz scissors! I threaded buttons and beads on the wire and then finished off by winding the wire around the small gear a few times and cutting if it off.  I did glue the big button to the wire so it would stay in place. and not slide all the way to the end.

One final note, I added a red label cut from Feather to the handle at the top of the tray to cover up the 7gypsies logo.  Details, details, details.
Well, that's it.  Super fun to play with...the ideas are really limitless on this one.
Happy Day,
paula