Thought some of you might be interested in this memory box I made for my mom with several photos from our family’s cottage on the Chesapeake Bay.

I had NO idea how this was going to come together, so I just started by picking a small white 7 Gypsies shadowbox (stash).  I printed three copies of each photo because I knew I would mess up and it’s a good thing, especially the boat pic.  That took many tries because I had to cut four people out of the photo to make it just my mom & me 🙂 Getting the acetate positioned for the boat windshield was no picnic either!

hand made mixed media shadowbox top close up

The boat needed a background, so I took a piece of textured cardstock, masked off some clouds (MFT Cloud Trio & Simon Says Stamp Talk Bubbles) and lightly sponged some Distress ink over the background.  Since the photo didn’t show the entire boat, I needed something to cover up the bottom.  Head to my ScrapRack’s “Summer” section for some inspiration!  I pulled quite a few items that didn’t make the cut, but did find a use for the sand and waves border stickers, “Gone to the Beach” embellishment, the flip flops and a small container of teeny tiny seashells I bought my daughter on a field trip long ago.  I rescued it from a give-away pile when she was cleaning out her room.  Good thing, huh?

hand made mixed media shadowbox right before

Before surgery…

hand made mixed media shadowbox right after

…and after surgery!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The embellishment in the right opening lost more petals every time I touched it, so I replaced the flower with a tiny starfish and shell.  The middle section has an actual shell from our beach, one of maybe 20 I’ve saved all these years.  Instead of stamping the date and place, I ran the vellum through my printer and carefully placed the adhesive under the flip flops and shell.

hand made mixed media shadowbox left boxhand made mixed media shadowbox center box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the left-hand section I took a second copy of the photo and cut just the inner tube & feet portion to place over the full picture, using foam tape for dimension.  The larger shells are also from our beach and the tiny one is from that rescued container 🙂

The last thing I did was print out the sentiment onto vellum and die-cut one of the same clouds from it.  I placed it over but slightly offset from the masked cloud on the top right.  I did a lot of agonizing over all the details of this project, but in the end both my mom & I loved it!

Hope you enjoy!!  Signature for blog posts