Hippo Shadow Box

I have had this project finished for a while, but my photographer (my wonderful husband) has been sick, so I am just now getting to post this.

As you probably already know, I have an obsession with hippos. Since my husband won’t let me have a pet hippo, I collect figures of them, instead. I have quite a few little ones that get rather lost on a shelf, so I decided to turn one of the Tim Holtz Configurations boxes into a shadow box to hold some of them.

I covered the back and bottom of each box with paper from Tim Holtz, then used Tissue Tape to cover the edges of each box and to hold them all together. Since I wanted the hippos to shine and not the box, I painted the tissue tape with gold Paint Dabber to calm it down a bit. Then I added some ribbons in browns and golds from my stash to the edges.

I added a sticker by Rusty Pickle to the back of one box and a stamped image, colored with Copic Markers, to another. (I found the stamp on a scrapbook retreat. I told my husband it was a portrait of us!) They appear a bit cloudy in this photo … there was just something odd going on with the lighting.

On several of them, I added Grungeboard leaves and flowers from one of the Tim Holtz kits. I colored them with Distress Inks and then used a homemade Perfect Pearls mist to cover the flowers.

For the background and sides of the box, I used Adirondack Color Wash in Sailboat Blue and Denim. The final effect reminds me of water.

I used Removeable Glue Dots to hold the hippos in place and put the box together. Then, I added feet, corners and a label — all Tim Holtz products (all attached with Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear glue). I thought it needed just a little more, so I added a few Prima flowers to the plastic front.

And now it is ready to go on my shelf!