The First Class...

...of 2015 - gilding.

At 9.15am this morning I had braved the frost & ice to meet up with my friend Hilary at the café over at the Barleylands Craft Village. We met for breakfast and to have a catch up chat before heading over to Pinnacle Crafts for Andy's first workshop of 2015.

The class was a chance to play with some construction and the new Creative Expressions gilding wax colours.

To start with we cut our CS to size for the project that we were going to construct and before proceeding with any embossing, I toned down the smooth white CS with some Memento ink...

 ...I used "London Fog" as it has a blue/green tint to it.
The panels for the back & front of the project were embossed with a Spellbinders 3D Em-bossing Folder - Labels 34 Medallion...

...then a little more "London Fog" was applied before I started with the gilding wax. The first colour I used was Graceful Peach and then I added Graceful Mint...

 ...one of the great things about these embossing folders is the fact that there are matching dies...

 ...which come in very handy.

The project for today was to create a box that looks like a book...

...something that we have done before but on this occasion we used slightly different techniques for the construction...

 ...I also decided that I wanted to be able to keep the book closed...

 ...so I added some ribbon between the embossed panels and the greyboard used to construct the box.

When I got home, I added some pearls near the spine...

...because I had also added some ribbon...

...to create a bit of interest on the spine.
I love the finished effect...

 ...and gilding wax gives the 'book' a lovely soft sheen.

What will I be using my book for...

...my secret crafting stash...

 ...of chocolate.
After all, seeing the book sitting on my desk...

...would you know that it contained lots of yummy chocolate?

Today's class was to make more than one book...

...and to play around with different "looks". This peek shows the same two gilding wax colours used on textured black CS. I'll show you what I made another time.

Hilary's book was completed in a lovely blue/lavender shade and yet, she too started off with smooth white CS.

We had a lovely day - watched the snow falling from the comfort of the classroom through the skylights (thankfully it turned to rain) - had a lovely lunch at the café (with more chat) - and enjoyed a messy but productive crafting day.

Thank you Andy - 2015 crafting has begun with a great start.........................................................