Match box ornament.... let's begin the inside...

Now to the inside of the match box. I've lined the inside with another part of the book page that has been painted light blue. First the page was painted, then I tore the strip the height if the inside of the box, and added the length of the sides. Glued it down, being careful not to get air bubbles again, and then added the short sides by tearing strips their length and gluing them in.

Gotta let it dry again (good heavens this patience thing... )




Now, I have a plan for this little thing... snow, snowman, trees... so I need to add some white paint for the snow. a little splatter to make it look as though snow is falling, and glitter to make it sparkle... It's a pretty simple inside.

Of course... it still needs the tree and snowman.




First, the tree.

Several lengths of the 28 gauge wire were cut, all of them somewhat shorter than the overall height of the match box. Some shorter, some taller... and then they were all twisted about half way up (creates the "trunk").

Stand the tree inside the box to see if it needs shortened, and if it does, use wire cutters to cut from the bottom of the wrapped end. That will shorten the tree, and it will make sure that it is cut evenly across... no longer wires sticking out.

Flare the "branches" to spread them out, rem=embering that you have only so much space inside that box. When the shape looks the way you want it to, paint it black, and if you'd like use white glue on the tips of the branches and sprinkle on a little glitter. When it's all dry, use a drop of super glue (gel version) to glue the trunk to the bottom of the matchbox.

Hold it steady for just a minute so it will set up and there you have it... a tree just waiting for a snowman under it... that will be coming up next.



The links to all of the sections of the tutorial:

Let's get started...

Painting the outside...

Painting the inside and the tree...

Making the snowman...

And the final steps...

Match box ornament continued...

Everything is dry now, glitter is stuck in the paint... and now, let's finish up the outside of the ornament... This is what the outside of the match box looks like now. I think it needs some "snow"... so it seems some splattering is in order.





Using the white acrylic paint, and watering it down a bit load it onto a brush, and then, putting the match box in the line of fire, tap it gently across one of my fingers. It spreads splatters over whatever surface is near (seriously... be careful of the things you have near). You can also do this using a tooth brush, you just rub your thumb over the bristles rather than tap the paint brush.) Of course, allow it to dry a bit before moving on.



I found several different styles of alphabet stamps a few months ago, and thought I'd use them to stamp "let it snow" on the ornament. Using letters from all three of the different fonts, I thought I had enough room to stamp the words, but obviously messed that up as the word snow trials off the side.



Everyone scream with me now... ARGHHH!!!

Ok, after a few deep breaths and curse words it was time to deal with it... maybe a few snowflakes and more "let it snow"?

First... the snowflakes. Mine were painted on, I have painted so many years I feel more comfortable using a brush than most other tools, but if you are creating something similar, and are not comfy with a brush, use a gel pen...






A bit more stamping, a few more snowflakes... and you'd never know it wasn't planned this way... would ya?






After giving it some thought I decided the hanger was going to go from side to side (left to right) so the hanger needed to go in this section of the ornament. I used a very small hole punch to put two holes in the sides after I marked an equal distance down from the top.

Then I took a pretty long length of thin light blue ribbon and ran it, from inside the match box, through the hole, through a brass snowflake charm I had, and through a white glass bead, finally tying a knot in it. Clip off the excess ribbon and there you go. Repeat on the other side and the outside of the ornament is finished...


Next, the inside...


The links to all of the sections of the tutorial:

Let's get started...

Painting the outside...

Painting the inside and the tree...

Making the snowman...

And the final steps...

Let's get started on Christmas...

I had an idea for a little ornament/
winter shrine/
cutsie-tootsie made from a matchbox... and I finally finished it... so what else would I do but share it with you just in case you want to make something similar?

You start off with an empty match box (of all things, huh?), gather some old book pages (another shocker I know). acrylic paints, a little bit of sculpey, wire (28 gauge and jewelry head pins), glue (white glue and super glue), seed beads, larger glass beads and bugle beads, some brass snowflake charms, ribbon... I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but we'll catch it as we go.

First, let's work on the outside of the match box. It was covered with a portion of a book page. I like torn edges, so I semi-
measured how much I'd need (you can see it was a bit longer than I needed). Spread a thin layer of glue on the paper and tightly wrap it over the outer match box cover. You want to be careful here and get rid of any air bubbles. I used my trusty Formica chip to smooth as I went and didn't have any issue, just be sure to smooth, smooth, smooth. Let it dry well, and tear off any extra page.






Once the glue was dry, I added a coat of a medium blue acrylic paint and let that dry...











I have a stamp that looks like a checker-board, and thought that might look interesting, so I painted it white and stamped it on the box.




And while the paint was still wet, I sprinkled micro-fine glitter all over it and tamped it off. (It was at this point that I got a healthy dose of the glitter all over me too...) Again, it needs to dry a bit before I do anything else.

So, we'll leave off here and begin again tomorrow...




The links to all of the sections of the tutorial:

Let's get started...

Painting the outside...

Painting the inside and the tree...

Making the snowman...

And the final steps...

A few favorites...

I'm finishing up a project to share with everyone in the coming week, so today I'm going to share a few of my old posts... just a few yummy recipes to enjoy...

Olive Oil Cake (YUMMY!!!)

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Spumoni Cake

Noodles in peanut sauce (little bit spicy)

Greek Summer Salad

I'll be back tomorrow with the new project... until then... happy eating!

It's Saturday...

And the ArtsyBloggers have been busy again! Check out what everyone's been doing (these are some SERIOUSLY creative folks... folks!!)...

(I cannot get a pic of Cherie's glass
sculpture to load... y'all will have to click on the link to see it)

Blue and Teal Garden Glass Sculpture
Another glass sculpture! This one uses blue and teal glass.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Eileen tries her hand at 3D paper tole. It’s not as difficult as it looks, but does require a bit of patience.

Creative Paperclay Necklace
Something new with paperclay!

Beading Arts
Want to add a bezel to a curved surface? Cyndi shows you one easy way to do it!

Stopping to smell the flowers...

Just outside my back door in a teal colored pot are growing some small zinnias. I'd forgotten how lovely a flower they are. I thought I'd create a flower that wouldn't grow old and wither... out of old book pages, of course. I started by tearing a few pages out, and gluing two pages together and allowing them to dry.

After they dried well, I painted them, using my usual hot pink and bright orange.

Allowing that to dry, I cut out petal shapes in four graduated lengths, one barely longer than another.


When I had as many as I thought I might need (which just means a small pile of each size) I decided that the best way for me to attach these petals would be to first glue them to very thin strips of paper. Which, of course, meant more drying time... this was turning into another lesson in patience. (Sigh...)

Finally, it was ready to assemble. A length of floral wire, a bit of floral tape... one end of the wire was bent into a flat oval "loop" so that the petals wouldn't slip off of the wire.

Using a bit of glue, I attached the shortest strip of petals to the wire, and then simply rolled it and rolled it and rolled it until that strip was finished.





When the strip was attached, I wrapped it with the florist tape, stretching it over itself very well so that it would stick.









All of the strips of paper were added in the same manner, and a hefty final wrap of the florist tape was added to hold them all in place... and again, they were allowed to dry.








Finally, I rolled the petals over a pencil to curl them so that they would "open" like a flower...











And the final flower... I really do like how the print of the page shows through the paint, it fascinates me every time I see it.

What do you think of it?

With a little tweaking...

Remember these from a few days ago?














Check out these...










I wear a whole lot of black (which is really dumb, since the dog is blonde), so I wanted to make a black bracelet for myself.



The fabric was all wrapped around the bangle, and, I liked it, but thought it needed "some-thing"....
you know, that elusive "thing" that will improve on it. After giving it a little thought it seemed some beads might be just what it needed. I can assure you though, knocking that box of beads over had nothing to do with it...

When I finished, I had lots of little white seed beads and some mirrored bugle beads scattered all over the bracelet (and a hole in my finger from the needle).








I liked it.













And, if it worked so well with the black and white, it seemed a great idea to play with some other colors.








And, oh my goodness... I like this one too. Something about those orange red beads against the pale teal...







There are sooooo many more ideas rolling around in my head, so many ideas... all wrapped around these... I can't wait to get some of them out and finished to share with ya!

So... have you heard...

Of Craftsy? I got an email the other day from Cloth Paper Scissors letting me know about it, so I hopped on over to see what it was all about. It's pretty interesting so I thought I'd give y'all a heads up about it too.

You can take online classes in everything from crocheting to container gardening. You can post your own work, along with links to patterns (for sale or free) that you've designed. You can see the work of others (who may also have patterns available). Basically, it's a great place to connect and share. See what other are up to and share what you're doing (I've even posted a few projects there). Always a fun thing to do... go check them out here.

Don't forget about the giveaway!

The bluebird is looking for a new home! Go here to see the rules and leave a comment for a chance to win! (You can leave a comment a day for an entry a day!)


Of course, if you don't want to win him, you can go here to find the FREE pattern to make your own!


(Pattern is for personal use only, all rights reserved)

An ode to Kate...

Remember her?

Just something about her wasn't going right. I couldn't put my thumb on it... but I just wasn't getting where I wanted her to go.

Then... I got an idea. She needed to be a much bigger butterfly... and more colorful. So, off I went on that path...












As I sat among the colors, painting in the doodles that I had drawn all over her so long ago I started thinking about my Little One. Seems she has a thing for ink... that child of mine.














You know... she's beautiful. I'm sure every mother thinks that of her child, but when she was born I was in awe. She was one of the two most perfect beings I'd ever seen (I'd birthed the other one almost 7 years earlier.)

Knowing that she was my last child I stared at her. A lot. She had the most perfect skin, the tiniest lips that were just so tiny, and so perfect...

And then she became eighteen. Her first real act of showing me that she was an adult who could make her own decisions was to get a tattoo.






Tattoos are a unique thing... I think they are interesting, but for the life of me, I cannot imagine something that would have so much meaning to me that I'd mark my body with it for the rest of my life. Should I ever find that symbol, I'd do it in a heartbeat... but you know... when it is your baby, it's different.














Anyhoo... while I was rolling up the body for this doll I was thinking... she reminds me of my Little One. My own little butterfly who is unfurling her wings... creating herself...


My Big One creates his art using words and pictures in graphic novels as he canvas... My Litte One... her canvas is herself.









So, this creation has turned into an Ode to Kate... it takes a great deal of effort and strength, and a healthy dose of courage, to move from that caterpillar stage to being a beautiful butterfly. And sometimes it takes a parent learning to look at their child with a different perspective to see just how beautiful that butterfly truly is.

I think we are both getting there.

How about another quickie...

Everywhere I've looked lately I have found fabric wrapped bracelets. Everywhere. Some of them expensive. You know... seriously... how hard could it be, right?


So... while out and about yesterday I stopped in Walmart and picked up a pack of bangle bracelets. Eighteen bracelets for $6.00. My next step was to rummage through the fabric I have in my stash... heaven knows I have some, I bet you do too.



Being lazy like I can be on the weekends, rather than cut my fabric I tore it into strips, about a half inch wide.

And then... I wrapped the fabric around the bracelet. Was a pretty simple process, and when I came to the end (where the fabric overlapped), I secured it with some glue and a couple of stitches.








To add a bit more support to it, I wrapped it with some co- ordinating perle cotton too.






I created a set of three, two purple ones and one green one. Then I decided to add a loop to connect the tree bangles.


Using one of the fabrics I had wrapped the bracelet I sewed a tube with the right sides together and then turned it to the right side. Using the purple perle, I added small stitches in a very random pattern. Then added bugle and glass beads... sewed the end into the opening of the tube...



And here we are... fabric wrapped bangles...

It couldn't be easier... so rummage around and see if you have any bracelets (or grab a few next time you're out) and see what you can come up with!