Artist Trading Block - With Dylusions Sprays

I have been having a ball playing with the Sizzix Eileen Hull  artist trading block dies the passed few days. I made a large one that will be coming up next Thursday for the Inspiration Team and The Artist On The Block website so make sure to check back next week! 

For now, I wanted to use one of the smaller size block dies and make something for my dear daughter 

I decided that the small 1 1/2" x 1 1/2 inch sized block would be perfect for this project

My daughter is 16 now and has had her drivers permit since last August. She will be officially driving without her father and I in the car this coming August. Of course, her father and I really worry about the day we aren't in the car with her anymore. (as any parent would)

I decided to make something to remind her to always drive safely. (to bad I can't put a mini video camera inside this little box!! haha!!)

To start this project off, I sprayed a white piece of paper with Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions sprays in various colors 

I also applied more inks and sprays with some stencils, I then cut down my paper to the perfect size for each side of my artist trading block

I used all of Dyan's stamps for the flowers and words, embossed them with black embossing powder and colored them with copic markers

I then carefully cut them all out, these are tiny so that was quite a chore haha!! 

For the words, I stamped my sentiment and then cut down each part of the phrase that I wanted to use

I added a few lines of white acrylic paint to each side of my paper and also edged each one with black marker

 I painted my artist trading block with black acrylic paint for the base and glued each side of my paper on

In order to get this ATB to hang, I made a hole right in the center of the top and bottom pieces 

For the top I used a Tim Holtz ring fastener and colored it with distress paint first

For the bottom I made another hole and used a chain, I also used Tim's new Heart Charms and cut out some of the paper I had made and wrote my words for the heart. (try writing that small, its tough LOL)

Here is a photo of my finished Artist Trading Block....

You can see that Tim Holtz ring fastener that I painted in the following photo 

It says "You are loved more than you know" and the heart says "Drive Safe"

Here is a photo of it hanging on her rear view mirror ... (sorry the photo isn't so great, it's tough to take a good photo inside of a car on a sunny day)

Thanks again for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and photos. Maybe you can try your hand at making one of these Artist Trading Blocks, they are mucho fun!!

As always I love your feedback and comments!! XOXO