"Nature Studies" altered book project

Easter brought some chocolate and that came with a lovely small book box which was perfect for altering!

So I created this:

First I gave the glossy surface of the chocolate box a coat of Gesso. Then I applied a coat of glue over the front of the cover and covered it with sandwich paper I crumpled while trying to keep the center flat and even. After that was in place I continued with the spine of the book where I had glued three thick pieces of cord which were now covered in the same way. The back was most fun as I could crumple the paper here as much as I wanted!

After all had dried I trimmed the edges leaving some for glueing it to the insides to get nice edges.

For the inside of the cover I stamped some cut to size card with images of the "Nature History" stamp set from DeStempelwinkel (which I love veeerrry much), blended the edges and the card with walnut stain Distress ink and flicked some water over the finished piece to get a stained look.

The inside of the box was painted with turquoise acrylic paint.

The outside of the sandwich paper covered book was first painted with a dark brown and then dry brushed with a lighter brown to highlight the creases and some areas. I also used Inka Gold, which gave the book a lovely leathery, old and precious looking finish!

The book panel was also created by using stamps from RedLead and DeStempelwinkel, blending with DI walnut stain and flicking water onto.

I hope you like it! I had a lot of fun making this (and have another of these chocolate boxes in store ;).

I enter The Artistic Stamper's challenge "Texture"  , Craft room challenge "In the Library" , City Crafter's "anything goes" challenge and  Simon Says "Anything Goes" challenge, with this project. 

Hugs,

die amelie x