A Wintery Altered Matchbox

I'm back on the matchboxes again - lol

The theme for this month on the Flickr group

Matchbox Monthly Swap

is 'sparkly, blue winter'.

I covered the matchbox with watercolour paper

sprayed with tones of blue.

The focal point on the top of the matchbox

is a sparkly white tree which is die cut shrink plastic

using the Sizzix Alteration Bigz die 'Branch Tree'.

I wound some white wire around a few of the

branches to hang some sparkly blue beads

- you see it is a magical winter tree!

I sprinkled some glitter here and there

and some sparkly flakes at the foot of the tree.

As you can see from the above photo, I glued

some lace on the edges and the ends (and the inside) were

covered with self adhesive glittery shiny paper.

For the drawer pull, I used a large holed bead

with a brad inserted through.



I filled the matchbox with an assortment of

little goodies - I tried to keep to the blue

and white/silver theme.

My swap partner

 Lesley of Harmony Road Studio

has now received this matchbox

and I'm pleased to say she liked it - yay!!

Thanks for looking :)

More Stamp and Shrink Charms

Following on from yesterday's post I've made three more charms

for the 'Stamp and Shrink Charm' swap.

Thank you to those who left me lovely comments, I really do appreciate them!

I used these stamps this time

The oriental looking one is 'The Calligraphy Robe' from

 Stampington and Company.

 I stamped it onto black Shrink Plastic then coloured over it in part

with gold acrylic paint, which on reflection wasn't the best idea as it's covered up most of the detail on the robe!  I don't much care for the face either

as it looks like a negative print.  Maybe I'll make another on white Shrink Plastic.

On the plus side though, I like the hanging beads and Chinese coins

which are quite tactile and make a pleasing sound when jangled.

For the next one I used three stamps from the 'London Underground'

from the Artistic Outpost - I just love these stamps!

I used clear Shrink Plastic this time which I much prefer as once

shrunk you can still see the image from the back.

Finally, I did another from the Character Constructions set,

but this time on black Shrink Plastic and StazOn opaque 'cotton white' ink.

I have a few tips I'd like to share -

and if I don't record them here, I'll only forget about them!!

• Once shrunk the shrink plastic can be embossed with embossing powder - I did this on the reverse of one of my charms then rubber stamped an image into it, it's great for covering up an untidy back.  I did read this on another blog but can't remember whose it was - sorry!
• When cutting out the rubber stamped image from the Shrink Plastic leave a slight silhouette around it - ie, don't cut right into the edge of the image.  This gives the image more definition and it looks better.
• Finally, this one is from Lesley who has discovered that ACETATE also works well to shrink.  I shall be trying that one out!                      Thanks again Les!

EDIT:  I tried out the acetate, but it didn't shrink for me :(

I used a heat gun and quite thick acetate - maybe it depends upon

the type of acetate and the method used for shrinking?

If you have a go I'd be interested in hearing how it went for you.

Stamp and Shrink Charm Swap

Shrink Plastic is something I rarely use but I do have a little supply of it in my craft room - like most crafters I suppose, I have a little bit of most things but don't often use all of it.

When I saw this 'stamp and shrink charm swap' on

 the artists nest

Ning Network group recently, and some of the examples made

I was inspired to have a go myself.

Here's the stamps I used from Stampotique and Character Constructions.

So it was just a case of stamping onto the clear Shrink Plastic with black

StazOn Ink, colouring (the two Stampotique ones) with Marvy Le Plumme

pens, punching holes into and then heating and shrinking with the heat gun.

This one is my favourite as I like the dangling arms and sewing machine charm (attached with jump rings).

I just added a few beads and findings to these two.

I like the girly one with the heart and the other one is more masculine.

I added a glass gem to his chest as after shrinking there was a large

dimple there and I don't know where it came from!

Here you can see the size of the charms in relation to the stamps.

I might have to make some more now!

Thanks for looking :)

Mannequin ATCs

I've joined another of the hosted swaps over on the DoCrafts forum. This one is a 'Mannequins' swap and is being hosted by Helen whose DoCraft's name is Smellihelli!
She said we could interpret the swap however we liked and I hope my interpretation is acceptable because I used a rubber stamped image of a dressmaker's form on a couple of the ATCs which I suppose isn't strictly the same as a mannequin as the dictionary defines it as a 'woman who models clothes'. Near enough I suppose - well I hope so anyway!
I couldn't resist using my favourite medium again - beeswax - I just love it! So all of the backgrounds have either dressmaking tissue paper or plain tissue paper beeswaxed onto them. The 'mannequins' are rubber stamped images onto Grungeboard (the pretty pink one and the yellow dressmaking one), the red one is rubber stamped onto metal which I then embossed and coloured with alcohol inks and finally, the one with the red button on is rubber stamped onto shrink plastic (that's why it's so tiny!)
Some lovely Mannequin ATCs have been appearing in the galleries and blogs of other participants and some absolutely stunning ones can be found in Sian's. I do hope that I'm lucky enough to get one of hers back in the swap. Wonder if Helen is taking bribes this time around - lol!!