My House of Memories - The Stamp Man Challenge

Hi, this is my last post of 2011!!!  Having spotted the new challenge over at The Stamp Man, The Stamp Man Awards - Your Favourite/Best Project from 2011, I just had to join in with a project I made in my early blogging days.  There's a £30 prize in the random draw, and 4 runner up prizes.  2011 is the year I started blogging and the project I'm entering is one of my very first altered projects (possibly the first!) - it is also one that is very dear to me, and also to my mum as it hangs proudly on her wall.  You can view the original post, from May, here.

A bit of background to my project:  earlier this year my lovely uncle passed away, after losing his battle with cancer.  I wanted to do something special for my mum's birthday so I decided to decorate/alter this house shaped curio box.  As my uncle was into fishing in a big way, he lived in New York for many years, and was married to a wonderful Japanese lady, I tried to symbolise these parts of his life in this project.  All of the photos I used on this were taken by me when I went to stay with him and his wife, about 25 years ago.

The box was painted with acrylic paint, and a little crackle accents and metallic gold rub-on added here and there.....

 .....the papers used for the backing were from the TH Shabby Chic Collection, and a little DI on the edges.

The cotton reels were coloured with DI and some twine wrapped round, and a little sewing machine charm sits behind one of them, although not visible.  The photo of the boat was his own boat which he went out fishing on (I caught a few fish on that boat when I was there!) .....

.....the photos have all been mounted on TH fragments and a few sea themed charms are covered with gold mixative.....

.....a fishing hook from the £1 shop was attached to the top recess and the sentiment "live the life you've imagined" attached.....

.....some japanese elements added, such as dps covered with fragments, and a little kimono (left), and a heart (middle).  An angel on some cord was also attached (middle) and another japanese heart and a photo of my uncle and I (gosh, I look young!!!), topped with a fragment (right).  The words "love", "cherish", and "family" were attached to the front of the box in various places.

Stamps used were from Tim Holtz and Creative Expressions.

I hope you like it.

Maria x