Spring Is Here - another matchbox!

I recently did a one to one altered matchbox trade with

PeggyR of My Affairs With Art & Daily Life

Peggy had never altered a matchbox before and she chose

the theme of Spring/Easter.

For my matchbox I used an egg template which was designed by Angellea.

I cut the template from card - cut 2 of each part

as it needs to have a ribbon sandwiched inbetween to allow

the two cracked shell parts to open.

For the outside I painted the egg with MiniMezze paint (Pacific colour),

 then applied Crackle Accents.

For the inside the egg was painted with Folk Art paint

 colour Taffy and lightly rubber stamped randomly.

The drawer edges were coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I used a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper magazine (April 2012 issue) - stamped it on tissue paper then mod podged it to the inside of the drawer.
The inside was painted light blue first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fibres which I thought looked a bit like a bird's nest were stuck

 with hot melt glue, to the front of the box as was the egg.

The shots above show the underside and the drawer pull

which consisted of a paper flower, a bead and a brad.

The egg opens up to reveal this image

which I found on the Flickr collage group.

Here's the contents of the box

I wanted to include a wired bird nest charm which I made

following this tutorial.

I received a lovely box back from Peggy which I need to take

a photo of - I also received my March 'Shamrock' matchbox today

from my Flickr swap partner - so I will show them in

another post.

Thanks for looking - and happy first day of Spring to you xx

Altered Matchbox - for Valentine

It looks as though I may be (almost) back to normal - 

although the font looks a little different to usual.

Just to bore you a little more - I have got the Mozilla Firefox

up and working.  For my previous post, I was still browsing on 

Internet Explorer .... hmmm, we'll see how it goes now ....

Still there?   Good, I'll show you something I've made...

This is a matchbox I altered for the February challenge

over on the Matchbox Monthly Flickr group. 

Now my swap partner, 

Les of Harmony Road Studio

 has received it, I can show it here.

The theme was Valentines - all things hearts, love and cupid.

I stated off by covering the matchbox with some self adhesive silver tape 

I used Tim Holtz (doh, don't mention Tim Holtz - my credit card is still

hot from all the purchases I made on QVC's craft day on Tuesday!)

well, I used his Sizzix/Alterations die to cut the heart.

(I also embossed it for more detail)

.... I covered the card with silver tape and book text before

putting through the die cut machine.

Then used three colours of alcohol ink 

This is one of my favourite colour combinations 

Pink Sherbert - Cloudy Blue - Cool Peri

I used a piercing tool to etch a few feathery lines on the wings.

Now the fun part, finding little bits and pieces to fill the matchbox with!

and just for good measure, I filled a little glass bottle

 with teeny weeny hearts too

For next month, the challenge is to alter a matchbox

to the theme of 'Shamrocks'!

"March will be all about the Shamrock, you must have a shamrock or shamrocks in or on the outside of the box. It can be the main theme it can be small it can be held in the hand of an image, but, you must have a shamrock."

Les, the owner of the Flickr group is looking for some new members,

 so if you'd like to join in you have until 9th March

to sign up for the swap. 

 

Thanks for staying with me .... I promise not to moan

any more .... well, maybe I won't promise, but you get my drift!

 

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 :)

Altered Matchbox: Theme - Birds

This month's theme on the Flickr group

 Matchbox Monthly Swap 2011 

is 'Birds'.

I immediately knew I wanted to make one of those cute little

 bird's nests made from wire and beads.

I googled and found a great tutorial on a blog called

Vintage Susie & Wings.

Inside as well as the wire and bead nest, I adhered some glass

pebbles - which perhaps look a bit like some more eggs?

There's also a used postage stamp with a bird on

and a little bit of twine around the edge.

The outside of the box I textured to make look like a tree's bark.

This was created with several layers of ink, paint, glue, more

ink and paint and a final layer of crackle glaze.

There's also another used postage stamp with a bird on,

glued onto a piece of chipboard and again covered with

crackle glaze.

The gold bird at the bottom is cut from shrink plastic

 from the Tim Holtz 'Caged Bird' die.

Can you see his beady eye - lol!

I enjoyed making the little bird's nest so much

I made another for the drawer pull.

Swap partners will be announced on 10th March

so I'll soon know who my little birdy box

will be flying off to!