It’s Friday…do you know what that means? That’s right…you get to see my challenge project!!! Just a reminder…the challenge was to use one product from the ButterBeeScraps shop in three different ways. Well, I used mine in four different ways 🙂
I chose to use one of the newest filigrees – the Bronze Square Metal Filigree Embellishments (#732-B). My first alteration included me transforming this flat square filigree into a 3 dimensional corner for this cute little box I created. Yes…believe it or not, that corner piece started out as a flat square, and I’ll get to showing you how I did it in a minute. First, I’d like to admire the beauty of the box…lol.
I actually created this little box from scratch, as I didn’t have one in my stash just the right size for what I put inside (we’ll get to that soon, too). Since I love Tim Holtz and his products so much, I chose to use some paper from his Vintage Shabby paper stash. After creating the little box, I hinged the top and bottom together using an Antique Bronze Hinge #HD886-B). I then decided to add Small Antique Bronze Box Feet (#HD092-B) to raise the box, and added my corners fabricated from the Bronze Square Metal Filigree Embellishment (#732-B) that I chose to work with in this challenge.
I figured the box would not be complete without some sort of handle on the front, so I fashioned a miniature drawer pull using a Bronze Round Metal Filigree Embellishment (#288-B), Bronze Filigree Bead Cap (#CAP040-B), Bronze Filigree Bead Cap (#CAP827-B), a bronze jump ring and a miniature bronze brad. To decorate the top of the box, I added an acrylic spray, twine, some paper and metal leaves and one large flower that I sprayed with Linday’s Stamp Gang just to add a bit of shimmer.
I know what you are thinking…but how did you make those corners? Well…the secret shall now be revealed. Before you do anything, I would suggest that you flatten the filigree with a pair of nylon jaw pliers. If you don’t have pliers, you can just run it through your die cutting machine. Once the piece is flat, you just cut one of the “petals” out of the square with a pair of scissors…preferably using Tonic scissors. It’s also a good idea to file the cut edges smooth using a needle file or an emery board.
Now comes the real transformation…lay a ruler diagonally across the filigree and bend up the 2 tabs that are left from where you removed the one “petal”. The next step is to turn your ruler 90 degrees and bend the piece in half…and, voila! You now have a box corner that you can glue to any box 🙂
You know those “petals” you cut out to make the corners? Don’t throw them away! I used those little pieces to create this adorable pair of earrings…that is alteration #2 🙂 Alteration #3 is also a quick and easy one – I created pull tabs on the top of my jewelry cards. To create the tabs, you must flatten your filigree like you did to create the box corners. Once your piece is flat, Lay a ruler across the center of your square and fold it in half…easy, peasy 🙂
Since I was on a role, I decided to use my chosen filigree in a fourth way…just for fun 🙂 I had these beautiful labradorite cabochons I bought a while ago, so I decided to make a necklace pendant out of one of them by wrapping my filigree around the stone to create a setting for it.
To create the setting, I started by flattening my filigree again. I then laid my cabochon diagonally on the backside of the filigree and folded up the two ends. When I did this, I realized that I had to trim a tiny bit off of the filigree so that it didn’t extend past the corner of my cabochon. In the picture on the left below, you can see that the filigree has been trimmed on only the one corner that wraps around the cabochon….the upper right corner.
After I finished trimming the remaining 3 corners along the short sides of the cabochon, I then put the stone back in place and wrapped the filigree around the long sides of the cabochon. I also used some nylon jaw pliers to ensure that the filigree was wrapped tightly around the stone. All I did to finish off this pendant was glue a Antique Bronze Glue-on Jewelry Bail (#J955-B) to the back of my wrapped stone 🙂
I hope you like this project and found inspiration to complete this challenge for a chance to win a gift certificate for the ButterBeeScraps shop. Just a reminder…you must leave a comment in the blog post explaining the challenge guidelines in order to be considered. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I look forward to what you may create 🙂
The ButterBeeScraps products used in this project include:
