Faux Carved and Gilded Jewelry Box Tutorial

I am as excited about this project as anything I have ever made! To see it in real life it looks like I carved the Cuttlebug "Leafy Branch" into the top by hand (but it's a white piece of watercolor paper, colored and wet and dry embossed!)
You need:

"A Year of Flowers"
Gold Embossing Powder and heat gun
Versamark
Peerless Watercolors (I love, LOVE these!!)
Holiday Metallic rub on paste
Gold brads
Sponge
Fancy Corner Punch (I ADORE this new punch!!)
Cardstock (Here SU! Old Olive, Brushed Gold, watercolor paper 5" X 7")
Cuttlebug Leafy Branch Folder (I seriously flipped out when I first saw this folder and knew my flower stamps would be coming out shortly after: oh, the possibilities!!)
Wooden box (this milk-washed box measures 6" x 8" ) These are SO inexpensive at craft stores!
Optional: wooden medallion(or chipboard), Large Flourish Punch for monogram

1. Rub all edges of the box and its feet with the gold Metallic Rub on paste, using your pointer finger. It's okay to have it more smeary in some places, looks shabby chic!
2. Stamp roses at random in Versamark on your white or vanilla CS or paper and emboss with gold EP. Paint with Peerless Watercolors and a brush or Aquapainter. I used the Flesh Tint, Geranium Pink, and Brilliant Yellow sheets from the Peerless book, doing a light wash over the whole flower, then adding darker areas to the petals, see this post. (I am lovin that flesh tint with the pink, it looks so delicate!)
3. Run the paper through your CB with the Leafy Branch folder. You'll have to do one half, then move the folder to do the other to get the whole sheet covered with branches. (This was an experiment, I wasn't sure if it would "break up" my gold embossed images when I ran it through...it didn't!!! :)
4. Watercolor the embossed leaves and branches with the Peerless Light Green and Dark Green pages, just tracing over the embossed parts with your brush. (I 'd never tried hand coloring the embossed CB areas either before, but it works like a dream!!)
5. Time to distress the page and darken that background! I sponged on Close to Cocoa and So Saffron all over making sure I got down into those little niches, and getting it darker around the edges, lighter in the middle of the page.
6. Highlight the embossed leaves and branches and the flat background around them with more rub on paste, then smear the edges as you did the box. Rub more gold on your Old Olive mat.

7. Punch out 4 fancy corners (you'll have four left over for another project since this is a double punch), and poke a hole into each corner. Insert your brad. Slide them into the corners of your embossed CS, then adhere the whole thing to the green mat. Glue (I used Mono Multi) to the top of the box.
8. Emboss your letter onto the Medallion (here PT Trajan) with Versamark and gold EP, rub gold paste around edges and adhere to on top of 2 punched flourishes. Adhere all to side of lid.
It now has a special place in my room! (They match the flowers in the vase, which match the flowers on my duvet...) Wouldn't these be amazing (and inexpensive!) Christmas gifts? I swear it took less time to complete than lots of cards I make LOL!! (Did you know you can add your own little music box element to it, too? I've seen them in a few shops around town... A box like this could also be a keepsake box for cards and photos) :)

I just realized I've shown roses three days in a row, oops! (Can you tell I like roses?) OK, no roses tomorrow, I promise! Have a great day!