Hello and welcome to a somewhat nostalgic post of summers past.
Eileen's teams are this month creating around the theme of summer adventures and I decided to make a small box full of the memories of my childhood holidays spent with my brothers and cousins at Southwold in Suffolk.
The photograph is from Tim Holtz's Found Relatives Pack, but could so easily be my cousin Cath and myself in the 1960s. We had very similar swimming costumes made by our mothers. I wanted to use this photograph in a celebration of the wonderful holidays at Southwold where we were really left to explore by ourselves and had some amazing adventures!
We are a very close family as my mother's sister married my father's brother (two sisters married two brothers), so as first cousins we are more like brothers and sisters. Four of us cousins are similar ages, and then the two "little ones" came along some time later. We always stayed in one of the huge three storey houses on North Parade overlooking the sea, with the pier (an old fashioned wooden pier) close by, as were the marshes where we hired boats and played at Swallows and Amazons.
Southwold is well known for it's lighthouse which is actually in the town and we would go to the green nearby to fly our kites. It is also well known for Adnams Ales and in those days huge horses would lug the barrels around the town.
We learnt to swim, row a boat, use binoculars, make scrambled eggs, invent treasure hunts around the town and Cath and I couldn't wait for the first cereal boxes to be emptied so we could make boxes and books (yes making them as early as that!). Our time was our own, apart from a day on the Norfolk Broads where we hired a boat and the celebratory Fish and Chips on the last night.
Evenings were spent playing cards and more often table tennis on the huge dining room table .... both Dads were great players and we learnt how to play properly and two of us went on to play competitively later as teenagers (including me!).
So many wonderful memories, but how to sum them up in a box ......
To create the box I have used two lids from Eileen's Treasure Box Die and painted the front with PaperArtsy Fresco Paint (Lake Wanaka) and DecoArt Crackle Paint.
I have gessoed some lolly sticks to make a rustic gate .....
.... before decorating with shells, muslin, straw and art stones.
I used washi take to create my spine before covering the insides of the box and made little boxes and a shelf using and extra side piece cut using the die.
You can fiddle around with these pieces to get the size you want and when glued together they are quite strong.
The wooden sentiment and loads of sand (fine art stones) hide all the areas which don't look too good!
I have used Eileen's Treasure Box lids before to make these lovely little memory boxes and you can find a tutorial for putting the box and shelves together by clicking the link below:
For more fabulous inspiration around our theme do visit Eileen's blog as there are some stunning projects from the rest of the team:
Eileen Hull Designs.
As always thank you for joining me and happy crafting!
Jennie x
Dies used:
Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Treasure Box by Eileen Hull #663634
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