Paper Trunk for your treasures anyone?

Recently I just finished up a project that turned out really cool for the Scrapbook Playground, featuring Paper Trunk's Gigi collection. From the moment I heard we were getting product from Paper Trunk I was inspired to create an altered trunk. I remembered seeing a paper mache trunk at WI Craft Market years ago. I visited Michael's and found an even better trunk than what I remembered, this one matching old steamer trunks that my mother used to keep in a storeroom, belonging to her great-grandfather, as I recall. They were heavy wooden trunks with metal straps, lots of rivets, and what I remember most is that they were lined with newspaper. How cool - a bit of history glued to the inside of the trunk! I decided to do the same with my trunk, using the hometown newspaper. I made sure "church notes" was visible and circled the name of the church I work at. On the inside I made a point to include local news from nearby Black Earth, where Jesse grew up, and the feautured article is about the recent flooding. I figure 25 years down the road someone will see this paper trunk and it will be similar to a time capsule with bits of news from the past. No matter where it ends up, the person who has it will know something about the area that the artist who created it, and where she is from. I had a great time making the project, and it was about time I blew the dust of the dremel tool and used it to drill holes for the brads, aka rivets.

For now my plans are to keep current photos in the trunk. I realize my family sees few photos as I am always filing them in craft keepers with papers, etc. upon receiving them. Taking our trunk to family reunions is also much classier than a couple envelopes of photos, don't you agree? I made index card separators so that the photos can be sorted by season. Which will also make it easy for me when I want to find certain photos for scrapbooking. The index cards, simple in design, each feature a photo that has red in it.



I also had fun layering flowers, felt leaves that I cut out and stitched on the sewing machine, and a black key on top of the trunk. I found a Sarah Heidt Photocraft diecut in my stash for "Family" that was pefect in its raw chipboard state for the front of the trunk. I totally love all the details on this project. I am excited to share it with you - enjoy!


On another note all together, I just learned that Maelynn is going to be teaching a class on doodling at Big Picture Scrapbooking, and using the book she authored that includes some of my work! If you have always wanted to doodle or would like some more practice from a great artist - consider Maelynn's class. Sign up at Big Picture Scrapbooking - - doodling on pages is great fun and SUCH a stress reliever. I think I do my best doodlign late at night...kind of going a little crazy, thinking I maybe went too far, but after a night's rest I love it.

Last but not least...Creative Express is making the BIG decision today. I would SO LOVE LOVE to be on this team. With the week I have had it probably won't happen, but I will say Scatty and crew have a really fair way of figuring out who the team will be. They should share their method with CK and MM for their annual big contests - no one can argue fairness and impartiality with the CX method! Good luck to everyone who has tried out for this awesome design opportunity!