I love the look of shabby chic. When I saw these beautiful whitewashed papers with a darker color core, I knew I had to use the Pazzles Distressing Tool to make a shabby chic project. The Pazzles Distressing Tool fits directly in the cutter and allows me to distress in detail that I would never be able to do with a clunky sanding block. While this project could be done entirely with the distressing tool, I also used the Pazzles Embossing tool for the swirl pattern on the box and the gift tag. This made the name on the tag a bit crisper.
The Inspiration Studio software gives me the freedom to create a project exactly the way I envision it. I wanted the gift box to be something that was very personal to the person receiving the gift. What better way to do that than using the first letter of their name? If you look closely, you will see that the swirl design on the box, the ribbon detail and the inside of the leaf are all done with the letter S. Since I can use any True Type font it was easy to find some fun fonts to use for these flourishes.
The flower and leaf were drawn in the software using the freehand draw function. Freehand Draw allows me to create a design that has an informal feel to it. The deckle edges of the ribbon trim piece were done in the software using one of the scissor options.
Materials: Color Core Cardstock Whitewash Collection in Blue, Pink and Green Pazzles Distressing Tool Pazzles Embossing Tool and Mat Sanding Block or sand paper Gable Box Pattern from Pazzles Cutting files for this project are available to Pazzles Craft Room members in the Image Library.
Instructions: 1. In the Inspiration Studio software, create an embossing pattern for box by typing a letter in several different sizes and fonts. Make multiple copies of the letters and place on box body. HINT: Make sure to MIRROR the letters so they will appear correctly when embossed.
2. Draw a rectangle for the tag and change the edge using the scissor option in the software. Add 2 lines very close together inside the tag edge for embossing. Add the person’s name to the tag using the font of your choice. Be sure to mirror it so that is appears backwards on the workspace.
3. Create a ribbon trim by making a long, thin rectangle that will fit around the box. Change the edge using the scissor option of your choice. Create several lines inside the edge using the outline function in the software. These will be distressed and will appear just inside the cut edge. Use the letter to make a pattern on the ribbon trim by turning it sideways and multiplying it.
4. Create a flower and leaf. Add distressing details as desired. I used another letter S in the leaf. For the flower I added a smaller flower in the center and used the engraving fill function to get a solid distressed look.
5. Place blue cardstock on the embossing mat so that the whitewash side is face down. Insert the embossing tool into the Inspiration using the smaller ball end. In the Cut Control Panel set the material to Emboss Cardstock. You will need to do the embossing multiple times to get the impression you need. Start with 2 passes and repeat until you are satisfies with the results. HINT: Do a trial run in a corner of the paper or on a scrap of the same paper you will be using.
6. Once the embossing is finished you can cut the box out directly on the embossing mat or move the embossed cardstock to a cutting mat. (If you move the paper to a cutting mat you will need to make sure you line the paper up in the same position as it was on the embossing mat.)
7. Place the green whitewash paper face down on the embossing mat. Emboss the green cardstock for the tag and cut it out.
8. Sand the whitewash side of the cardstock to make the embossing stand out.
9. Place the pink whitewash cardstock face up on a cutting mat. You will now use the distressing tool directly on the whitewash side to make the dark core color show up. Insert the distressing tool into the Inspiration. Set the pressure to 35 – 45. Distress the ribbon trim and the flower. You will need to repeat the distressing process 3 or more times to get the correct look. Cut out the distressed pieces.
10. Distress and cut out a leaf from the green whitewash paper.
11. Assemble box. Glue down ribbon trim and add flower and leaf. Use ribbon to tie tag to box.
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