Summer Shadow Box

Once upon a time (i.e. last week), I got a challenge kit from my local craft store. In this challenge kit were a piece of sail boat fabric, a "Hello Summer" card, corrugated blue paper, and a piece of driftwood. The rules were to incorporate all items in some form into a non-card project. When the crafting itch hit me hard this week, I decided I wanted to tackle that challenge kit. Searching through my craft room, I found an old balsa shadow box I had picked up on sale. Bingo! That box was perfect for a piece that would include driftwood, and gave me a flash of inspiration!

I started my summer shadow box by sponging Tsukineko's Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink around the edges of the "Summer" cardstock.

Next, I measured and cut the fabric to add to the two interior side walls of the shadow box. Being that my craft room doubles as our guest room, and we currently have a house guest, I cut corners and used some craft scissors to cut the fabric instead of digging my fabric shears out of the craft/guest room. Bad idea. It took much longer to get the straight lines needed, but at least I now know better for next time! I glued the fabric down with my handy bottle of Beacon 3-in-1 glue.

The balsa wood of the shadow box needed some base color, so I stained the interior top and bottom with Tim Holtz Tarnished Brass Distress Stain to emulate sand until I can add some real sand to the bottom. I covered the exterior of the shadow box with Picket Fence Distress Stain.

It took me a while to decide whether to utilize the corrugated blue paper to frame the outside face of the box, use it as "waves" inside the shadow box instead of sand, or to use it only on the small front lip outside the glass. I finally settled on the subtle hint of water provided by using the corrugated paper on the small front lip outside the glass, and was pleased with the results. Framing the whole front would have been too much blue, and would have covered over the beachy white-washed look that the Picket Fence Distress Stain provided.

The semi-final product (at least until I can get my hands on some real sand and hunt down my collection of West Coast shells from my summer road trip):

UPDATE: with the sand & shells added!

Entered in the:
Artistic Inspirations - challenge #135
Craft Your Passion - challenge #270
Crafting By Designs - July "anything goes" challenge
Crafting From The Heart - challenge #68
Crafty Catz - challenge #287
Crafty Girlz - challenge #3 
Create and Inspire - challenge #25
Creative Fingers - challenge #87
Glitter N Sparkle - challenge #145 
Make My Monday - anything but a card challenge
Not Just Cards - challenge #22
Scrapper's Delights - challenge #46 
Sisters of Craft - July "anything goes" challenge
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #88 - Top 3!
The Crazy Challenge #201
Word Art Wednesday - challenge #191 
Your Scrapbook Place - July "anything goes" challenge