Saturday, May 12, 2012

Marie A. Matchboxes!

So I have been having fun this week making Marie Antoinette themed matchboxes, and here are my first offerings!


The first one is a bit more whimsical and more like a little piece of confection or candy. It's pretty mint green background and honey colored undertones suggest as much. Then add the little heart at the bottom and how yummy Marie herself is dressed and it becomes a scrummy little treasure.


For both of these projects I started out with a normal 32 count matchbox.First, I crumpled up some patterned paper for a while until it became weathered and softer to work with. After smoothing it back out I used a glue stick to cover the back of the piece of paper.


For ease and efficiency measure out the paper for the outside of your matchbox before crumpling it up. Center your matchbox on the paper at one end and apply the paper around the outside keeping the paper taunt, then tuck in the edges.


I use a paper boning tool (or any small flat edge) to help smooth the paper on the inside edges, especially around the corners so the matchbox tray can slide through easily without catching. After that, I added pieces of vintage books pages, text, and pictures of Marie.


Once I had all the paper designs in place I used the Distress Paint in Rock Candy as a clear crackle coat on the top side of the box and let dry. You can now apply any other embellishments like the rose you see on the second matchbox or brads, paper flowers, etc. For the tray I used a combination of Walnut Inks in Lilac and Willow, along with Perfect Pearl mists that I made myself, once applied I dried with a heating tool. I used a small Fleur dis Lis stamp with metallic silver ink to decorate the inside bottom the the trays.You can finish by adding more to the back of the matchbox and tray bottom which I did, with some more vintage book pages. Then fill your matchbox with all sorts of sweet little goodies that will inspire the recipient to create their own unique piece of art.

I hope that this helps out in creating your own little matchbox and until next time as always, happy swapping everyone!


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