Optimism Reliquary

Last fall I was browsing around and came upon the Friends in Art website. Linda had created a shadowbox and used one of Paper Whimsy's reliquaries as a component.  It was a wonderful project and inspired me to get a few reliquaries from Paper Whimsy myself.

The reliquaries are precision cut wood or fiberboard boxes and are very easy to assemble and finish.  I used the Medium Angel Reliquary for this project.

I knew I wanted to add something to the shrine to hold a small book or tags  and an idea finally came to me last weekend.  I decided to make a second box the same size as the reliquary and then attach it with hinges.  The opening of this second box would face inward and hold some tags.





The Reliquary

A search through my stash revealed an assortment of possibilities.  I found some little bottles from Tim Holtz and also his philosophy tags, some word stickers and a hinge clip.  I'm not sure where the little bird cage came from. Once I added the "believe" tag I decided the theme would be "optimism" and added labels to the bottle and a little hanging sign to support that idea.

The box was painted with black gesso.  for the side panels I embossed a piece of Ranger metal foil tape and colored it with alcohol inks.  After applying the tape I used Baroque Art Gilder's Paste in copper and gold around the edges.

The angel went through several stages starting with Distress Stains and ink.  An application on Distress Crackle paint was less than successful because I did not like the color I chose.  I scraped most of that up and stained and inked again.  The end result looks a little rusted and weathered and although it wasn't as successful as I had hoped,I think it works.

I used brads to attach the hanging clip and tag, a tiny screw eye and chain to hang the bird cage and e6000 and Glossy Accents to attach the items at the bottom.  The paper is scraps from various collections.

Construction

I used .082 Binders Board to construct the second box, although a double thickness of chipboard would have done as well.  I wanted something sturdy and a close match to the thickness of the reliquary wood.  I also mimicked the construction of the reliquary by placing the back piece inside the four sides.

The hinges and latch (unknown source) were attached with brads.  I didn't have enough black long brads so used a Copic marker to color some silver brads, which worked because I didn't need it to look perfect.  I added some little wood feet.

Tags
I used the mini Vintage Cabinet Sizzix Alterations die to cut the black backing.  It needed to be trimmed on the sides and bottom to fit the box.  I made a template for the kraft  piece and cut the half circle at the top using ek success Circle Scissor Pro (IMHO the best circular cutter - works on chipboard too- I use some painter's tape for extra security on the cutter, and go slowly several times with chipboard).
I found some phrases I liked on Pinterest and printed them from my computer.  The butterflies came from Tim Holtz Crowded Attic Salvage Stickers.