Whimsy Stamps ~ Curious Things Apothecary

Hey crafty friends, I'm excited to share my last creation for September with you tonight, this creation took me quite some time to put together as there were lots of little details I wanted to get 'just right'. I've been so inspired by the amazing makes of Tim Holtz talented team of makers and though I've no hope of truly channelling their incredible talents, I was inspired to try my hand at a tiny creation inspired by them. I say tiny, because my 'off the page' canvas, is actually a little embellishments box for woodchip elements, that I've had lying around hoping to think of a use for. The box is only 4 x 4 inches and each little square is approximately 1 1/3 inches square. A fun size to try my hand at a small off the page creation. 

I painted the plain wooden box black with acrylic paint and had a couple of plays with layout, backdrops and design on this before I was truly happy with it. The finished piece above, went through this permutation below for a little while. But I really wasn't happy with the blinginess of the cactus as they're glitter cardstock, so I ended up swapping those out for a little Amethyst crystal and a rose quartz charm. I also added a little spider from a This Calls For Confetti mix, and added a little bit of depth and dimension to his body, by gluing some black iridescent pearls on him before adding him in the back. 

I also swapped out the backdrop behind my crow, as the iridescent cardstock was not photographing well and I had a piece of cardstock that I'd previously inked and splattered in red tones that worked well instead. Now he's not overshadowed by the shiny background.

I created a shaped top for the 'bookshelf' using a Whimsy Stamps Border die to create the stitched edge shape. I scored the base to have a little 'shelf' to adhere to the top of the 'bookcase' and also scored the sides to create a nice hidden finish to the top. I added the 'Curious Things' from the recent Tim Holtz Halloween release. The plaque is from the Idea-ology set Halloween Word Plaques and Tags. I sanded the plaque to give it a slightly roughened finish, but I'm new to this sort of crafting, so didn't get too elaborate with my distressing. I had a Washi Tape from the new Tim Holtz Halloween release, which had this 'orders attended to day or night' message on it and thought it'd be perfect to fit just under the plaque. I adhered the plaque with brads, but the Washi Tape I just stuck straight onto the base, I just trimmed the edges at an angle for a bit of interest.

My starting point for this creation with the little wooden divided tray that my woodchip embellishments came it, they were Kaisercraft woodchip elements and they always house them in these cute wooden trays. My second idea in this creation was these tiny apothecary bottles. I'd picked up a pack at a local crafty store and when I got them thought I was being crazy because how would I ever find a way to use these tiny bottles! But once I worked out I could fit three side by side in this little tray, my idea started to take form! I pulled out some of my embellishment mixes and started working out what would fit into the bottles and would look good. The coloured glitter was my beginning point with the bottles, I filled 3 bottles with green, orange and yellow glitter then glued their corks in place. I loved the bright hues of the glitter and it helped me form the 'groups' of embellishments. I had a set that had the little black circles with eyes which look like soot sprites from Totoro. Then I found a mix with the little green clay sticks, which looked cool to complete that little trio of bottles. I found in one of the Washi Tapes from the latest Tim Holtz Halloween release, a number '9', so of course I was off singing 'Love Potion Number 9' for the rest of my bottle filling! The middle trio, to pair with the orange glitter, I found some tiny orange hued hearts and some cute little ghosts, so that trio came together nicely. I found another little detail of the skull and crossbones in the Washi Tape set, so added that to the orange glitter bottle. The final trio I had yellow glitter ready to go and found some tiny cobweb confetti in one of my sets, so added those to the middle bottle and finally found some little moons, which I thought looked a little like bananas, which was a fun choice for the final bottle. Each cubbyhole has papers from Whimsy Stamps to create the backdrop for the elements I've added to the 'Apothecary Bookcase'.

There are nine little scenes in total that I created, I wanted to include a Crystal Ball scene and kept that quite simple, as I found a good sized marble in my kiddos old play things, it was a bit roughed up, but I think still did the job and had a 'soap bubble' finish on it, which look great for a Crystal Ball. I used two little jump rings which I glued together to create the base for the Crystal Ball and glued it into the wee box which I'd chosen some fun Gothic style wallpaper for, from a fabulous Whimsy Stamps Halloween Paper Pack. The middle scene is one of the wee crows from the Whimsy Stamps set Attempted Murder. I fussy cut him closely, then sat him atop a little skull bead to hat tip some Edgar Allan Poe style scenes. The background for this box as I explained above was swapped out and changed for a cool splattered background I had left over from a previous make. I have the crow balanced in place with a strip of acetate shaped to prop him upright. The only extras I added to the crow was a shiny eye with some silver pen and a tiny bit of black feather extra to his tail. The box with the gems in I spoke about earlier, were swapped for a previous scene I created, but just didn't sit well in the finished piece. I much prefer this tiny gems scene.

For this set of boxes, I created little spell scrolls which are wrapped with twine, to suggest a working apothecary with little spell scrolls for reference. I used old book paper from a damaged library book that was decommissioned. The middle scene, which is actually really random but one of my favourites, are these tiny pumpkins which come from the Whimsy Stamps Build-a-Pumpkin-Patch Die Set. They are the teeny pumpkins and so I cut several for this scene. I'll come back to those later, as I've additional photos to share. The final box has a Magical Lamp and a Globe that the resident witch can locate anyone on the planet with, hehe, well that's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

I diecut a few little pumpkins and found some orange wooden beads in my stash I could glue them too, so I could prop them upright more easily in the scene. Before adding them to the beads, I covered them with Guppy Lunar Paste to get a lovely warm orange on them. I then added some details on the pumpkins with a lead pencil. The lines look quite green here, which it seems is just how it shows on the lunar paste. I had initially sketched the pencil lines, expecting to need to go over them with a green pen of some sort, but the pencil worked so well, I just left it with those lines. I think the pumpkins came out so well and though it's a random little scene in this Apothecary of Curious Things, you can imagine them to be tiny pumpkins created by the resident witch that contain healing powers, you could say they're gourd for you! Hehe. 

This shot was taken around the time I realised, I needed to change the iridescent cardstock behind the crow and that the cacti were too blingy. So this was a 'work in progress' shot, which I've included, so you can see the box shape without the top I added. I love the difference adding that little shaped header top added to the design and I love the plaque, I think it gave it an elegant finish.

For those who visited earlier and read my half written post, my in-laws arrived today and I finally found a moment to finish up the post. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed this little step through my creative adventure with this make. I really did have such fun making this and I'd love to know what you think of this little Halloween décor piece. I need to get back to the family who are playing Scrabble behind me, so I'll leave this here.

By the time I add these details to the post, our October release will be live, so I've linked the banner above with my talented teamies creations showcasing this new release. Every month I'm bowled over by their wonderful talent and ability to take the same elements and create something completely different to anyone else! This always amazes and inspires me! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas is on the way with this release too, check out the cuteness! Wishing you all a wonderful crafty weekend. Hugs, Wends xoxo

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