been busy creating...

...and making projects for the craft forum I run.  So here are the first 3 months' projects for next year.

for January a 'wee sewing kit'

and inside the kit

for February a 'Mini Pizza Box'

and for March a 'Money Gift Holder'

and inside that...

I have had fun.

A Matchbox Box - Tutorial

This is rather long and detailed and doesn't have to be followed to the letter, but if you work in this order then you should be fine.  It really isn't as difficult as you think to make one of these boxes.

STEP 1

First thing you need are four matchboxes the carcasses of which you need to line up in this design.  Now measure the square.  This is to give you the size for your next item.

STEP 2

My square of boxes measured 3 3/4" so my card was cut to four inch squares.  You need 4 squares of textured card in a light colour and two squares on strong card.   Round the four corners of each card.

STEP 3

These pieces of card are going to make the top and Base of your finished box and need to be fairly strong, hence the sandwich I gave above.  Glue your cards together in this sequence.

Textured card, top facing down.

Strong card

Second piece of textured card, top facing up.

I glued mine with silicone gel so that I could move the pieces around making sure of a perfect fit.

Paint the drawer sections of your matchboxes using two thin coats to cover.

STEP 4

Select a set of nestabilities for embellishing the box (you can cut card by hand if you dont have a die cutting machine).  Paint the edges of the top and base cards on both sides, making sure none of the underneath colour shows through on the edges.  Don't you just love my cutting mat, and this is my best mat you should see the state of the other one.

STEP 5

Cut four pieces of cream card the same size as the side of one of your match boxes.  Stamp a word on each = I used Saddle Brown Staz On.  Ink the sides of these pieces but do not ink the top of them.

STEP 6

Fix your four match box cases together in the same layout as shown at the beginning then glue this to the base card.  Make sure you centre it perfectly.  Now glue one of the cream side pieces to each matchbox side, make sure they line up and you can then trim the tops down to make sure there isn't any excess on the top.  Now you can ink the tops.

STEP 7

When the base is dry glue the top to the boxes, make sure this lines up perfectly.

I turned the whole thing over and weighted it down to dry, but dont make the mistake I made in this picture - I put the drawers back in as I thought it would strengthen the whole thing while it dried - it was a tad difficult to get the drawers out again afterwards.

STEP 8

Okay, now we are ready to finish off the bottom of the box.  You will need two patterned papers, four large beads, four tiny bead and a small ink pad.  For my patterned papers I selected a background paper from the My Craft Studio Art Deco cd, shrunk it and then changed the colour and density for my second paper.  You then need to cut two shapes using your nestabilities, one slightly smaller than the other.

STEP 9

Ink the edges of your papers and mount them onto the base of the box unit.  Then glue the four larger beads at the corners and glue a tiny bead into the hole of each of the larger bead, these will then make your feet.  Because the bas of the unit will now be clear of the ground I punched 3 cream flowers using my Martha Stewart flower punch, inked the petal edges and glue a small stamen head into the centre of each flower.  These 3 flowers then made my embellishment for the base.  Leave to dry completely before turning over.

STEP 10

Now for the top of the unit.  I cut a two sided card from both of my background papers, plus a full shape from the lighter background paper and a smaller shape from the pink background paper, I also cut a small shape from cream plain card.

STEP 11

Ink the edges of all the pieces and then glue then pink double card inside the beige double card.  The single piece shape of beige background will eventually be glued to the top of the unit just to make sure their are no gaps showing.

Now mount the complete pink shape on to the folded card, centre it carefully, then the plain cream card into the centre of the pink shape.  Select a toning ribbon.

STEP 12

Add ribbon to the fold of the card and make 8 curls of green wire.  Punch out 10 small flowers using a selection of the card and papers you have used so far - for this I again used my Martha Stewart punch.

STEP 13

Colour the edges of the petals using an ink pad. I applied a single crystal stone to the centre of each flower and then 5 tiny pink crystal teardrops around the centre stones, arranged so the tear drops pointed down each of the 5 petals.  Shape the flowers carefully once the stones are dried.  Cut small pieces of one of your background cards and glue to the front of your drawers.  Colour the edges using your ink pad.  Arrange the flowers and green curled wires to make a pleasing design - use silicone glue for this so you can move things around to get the correct look.  I also added two pins with pearl head for effect.  Save one flower to use later.

Here is a close up of my flower - it measures just 3/4" across.

STEP 14

Next I had to finish off the inside of the top card.  Using slightly smaller nestabilities each time I cut a cream shape and a pink background card shape for both sides.  Again they were edged using the brown ink pad.

I placed blank shapes on the right hand side so that I could put a handwritten message on at a later time.

STEP 15

On the left hand side I had stamped a favourite quote about friends and I also added another of the little flowers but this time used tiny peel off gems to embellish it as I wanted the page to remain flat.  I was pleased with the addition of the little flower albeit I did it to cover a small ink smudge - sometimes our mistakes turn out just right.

STEP 16

Back to the front of the card and that spare flower I had kept several steps back.  Firstly I made a tiny hole in the bottom right hand corner of the card front.  I fitted a silver jump ring through the hole and then added 2 little charms using more silver rings.  The remaining flower was then glued just above the hole.  The whole card was then mounted on to the spare iece of card from Step 11.  I mounted it using transparent pads and care must be taken to line it up straight.

STEP 17

I screwed a Tim Holtz Hitch Fastener to the front of each of the drawers.

STEP 18

The final finishing touch before completing the assembly of the box was to glue a lace edging around the top of the box, this would soften the frame for my top card and then fix the top card to the top of the box using a double layer of clear pads to raise it up.  My matchbox box is completed and I can't wait to start another.

and here is number 2 which is actually working matchboxes

must be careful I dont ignite the feathers when I strike a match though :o)

and number 3, which I think is my favourite

For some friends

and inside each of the 20 bags is a card and a little parcel containing a bookmark that I made.  The bookmarks are all different and unique and I really should have photographed them all before I wrapped them.

Hopefully by now all the recipients have received their little gifts.

I wanted to make something for each of my Paper Dolls' Friends to mark another year of crafting together and here are the gifts all ready to go out

A big thank you to you all

for all the happy memories you have given me. I will treasure the cards, tags and gifts that you took the time to make for me - each one will be kept for ever.

Some serious crafting at last.

I have had a couple of proper crafty sessions and made my entries for the January challenges I am running on the Paper Dolls.

For the White and one colour swaps I made 2 tags, using my latest toy - my cuttlebug - and a few other bits and pieces.

For the Love Tag Swaps I decided to carry on using my new toy and made these 3 tags.

Finally my entry for the Big Challenge, which is to make a wall plaque featuring your favourite quote. My favourite has always been the Serenity Prayer so that had to be the centre piece for my plaque. I decided to have a messy play with my inks and stamps - I am still so new to this side of crafting and haven't a lot of confidence. I started playing with some cream card and Distress Inks in Shabby Shutter, Peeled Paint, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans. It took a while to get something I was reasonably happy with but still wasn't sure if it was all going to come together at the end. Added a couple of spritzes of Gold Tattered Angels Glimmer mist and a little Blonde Moments Sugar Pink Pigment, then decided enough was enough before I got too carried away. I stamped various flourishes onto the background using Versamark pad and emossed them using Bronze, Gold and Silver embossing powders - that got a bit tricky trying to mix the colours without actually running into each other. I then added the quote and nearly 100 crystals in pale green, lavender and pale blue. A lavender ribbon hanger and a quick run round the edge with my silver marker and it was done. It looks a lot better in real life, my photography still sucks.

Finally I had to make two pages for the Alphabet Technique Fat Book - it's K & L this month. So I decided on K for knitting and L for Light Box Embossing.