Altering madness

Recently I have had the chance to participate in a really fun and huge Hanukkah swap at scrapbook.com
(Hopefully my swap buddy doesn't read my blog)  It has been so fun and thinking of 8 gifts to make for my buddy has really pushed me outside of my comfort zone when it comes to scrapping.  Altering has always been something I have wanted to try, but hadn't gotten around to yet.  I had altered a few canvases before, but that was the extent of it.  Plus I had never gotten the chance to use Mod Podge and I was dying to try it out. 

My first use of it was on an altered canvas.  I started out painting the background with Star of David Masks.  Then I added a light layer of silver paint over that to give it a misty look.  Then I used my cuttlebug to make a ton of die cuts.  Archiver's has an awesome set of Hanukkah Quickutz dies.  They are exclusively sold by Archiver's so I felt REALLY lucky that I have one near me to get it  I adhered the die cuts using my ATG adhesive gun and then added several layers of Mod Podge.  I think it turned out really fun and festive.

My next project I was super excited to try, but so afraid to start!  I wanted to create an altered box, because my buddy said that she loves boxes and little storage containers.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found this really pretty wooden box for only $4!  Then I added a few pieces of glittery patterned paper that I found at Archiver's any yet again my Hanukkah die cuts.   First I painted the box white using some house paint we had.  Then I used silver Tim Holtz alcohol ink to add some silver stripes and I inked the metal hinges and hardware with silver to give them a bit of a distressed feel to them. 

My first thought was to use a grid or blocks for the top of the box.  For the stars I cut them out using silver cardstock.  Then I look a pretty swirly decorative stamp (any will do) and stamped over the die cut so it was covered in bits of swirls.  THEN I covered those in crystal and black diamond Stickles. I am really happy with the result.  After all of that I went with an alternating blue and black design on the sides and on the front I added a few bling circles. 

All in all I am very pleased with how this turned out.  My husband even asked me to make one for him.