Miniature Doll Bedroom with Matchbox Bed

As I’ve mentioned before, I swap quite a bit with Swap-Bot. I love getting fun mail, it makes an ordinary day much happier. I run a smaller subgroup which allows like-minded people to have even stricter rules and swap specific themed items which is fun but lots of work. One of my groups is Matchbox and More and I hosted a swap to make a doll bedroom.

The requirements were to use a matchbox as a bed, make a floor and two walls, one with a window and decorate the window and the room in general. And make or buy ‘someone’ to ‘live’ in the room. The matchbox used is approximately 2x1.5x0.5” so it’s pretty small. I used swatches from an online fabric store to make the sheet and blanket. The bottom of the blanket is loose so the drawer can come out then tuck back in. The headboard is actually part of the matchbox sleeve that folds up.

The room was sent flat so it is hinged on two sides but only temporarily adhered on the third side. The table is designed to fold flat too. The doll is made from felt and her features are sewn on using  thread as even one strand of embroidery floss was too thick! The curtain rod is part of a BBQ skewer and the curtains are more sample fabric with brad tie backs. The outer part of the window was cut with a square die but I didn’t have a die that perfectly cut the inner squares as the muntin bars would have been too thick so I used a die to cut the outer part of the square then trimmed the rest with an x-acto knife.

If you ever decide to join Swap-Bot, look me up. My username is thebragal.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Paper: Spring Moss, ivory CS-PTI, floral DP-Cosmo Cricket, wood DP-MME, chocolate CS-scrap, wall art-Little Darlings-Graphic 45
Accessories: all stash unless otherwise listed, brads-CTMH, square Nestabilities

Ocean Themed 250 ct Diorama MB

I love the ocean so it was a natural choice for my diorama matchbox!

I used a scallop die to make the waves. The sand is stamped with kraft ink then stamped again with a glue pad and gold glitter was added. The fish ‘bubbles’ are Dew Drops and the water is glittered along the edge and blinged with rhinestones. The sea bird dangles from a piece of rickrack.

The cover features pieces I cut from a Graphic 45 paper pad. Along with a die cut doily and some cool bling! In case you are familiar with a normal 250 ct MB, yes, this is much thinner. I specified that the box be thinner so it would cost less to mail. So it is only 1/2” high. Since I was sending it all the way to Australia, I’m glad I made it thinner! $4.85 vs closer to $10!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: crab, post-Shore Treasures CDS, bird-Seashore Crafty Secrets, sand-SU!
Ink: Memento black, kraft, chocolate-PTI, Versamark
Paper: Aqua Mist, Kraft, Hawaiian Shores-PTI, white CS (clouds)-Taylored Expressions, x-Press It white CS, vintage typing paper (doily)
Accessories: cloud, scallop, doily die-PTI, fish button, gold swirl-Jesse James, Dew Drops, rhinestones-stash, coloured glitter-Art Institute, white glitter-SU!, foam dots-Jody Morrow, bling strip-Recollections, vintage lace, May Arts ribbon, rickrack-stash

Floral Cupcake Matchbox

I apologize if I’ve posted this before. I have a folder labeled ‘not posted’ but I am bad about removing photos from it after I do post! I searched for keywords and didn’t find it so I think it’s new here.

I used Liquid Pearls here in a couple places. Once for the icing dots around the edge of the cupcake…

And again on the edge of the box. I traced a scallop on the edge and went over it with Liquid Pearls then added the dots. Looks like a cake decoration design. The cupcake is paper pieced with cardstock and DP.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: chocolate, cocoa-SU!,
Paper: Pink CS-PTI, DP-Basic Grey
Accessories: Scalloped punch (as template), Liquid Pearls, button-PTI, foam dots- Jody Morrow, silk flowers-Michaels

Quirky Alligator Pop-Up Matchbox

I can’t believe my time as a Doodle Pantry Designer is almost over! 1 more month, August to go (and a bit of July still of course)! I’ve had so much fun and had the privilege to use so many wonderful images. One category of images I don’t use as often are the cutesy images Laurie draws so well. As I tend towards vintage and shabby, these are harder to use. However, I just had to print out and use Quirky Alligator from the July release.

This is a pop-up matchbox. I designed a swap on Swap-Bot for this type of matchbox and had fun making it. Most matchboxes have a sleeve that slides off of the drawer rather than this type of lid. I used JustRite stamps for the outside but the cute part is inside…

When you open the lid, there is the cutest little alligator ever! I love the patches on his eye, leg and arm (front leg??) I coloured him with Copic markers and I wasn’t thrilled with how the lighter yellow green turned out as I was surprised to see it was quite dull compared to the similarly numbered greens. The 00 series of all the colours should be quite bright with no grey or brownish undertones (with the obvious exceptions of the greys and browns). So I figured G00-09 and YG00-09 should be similar in tone. But to me, the YG’s were a bit dull but maybe it’s just my eyes… Shows more IRL than in the photo. I left those areas pretty much unshaded as the coordinating darker shade seemed even more brown/greyish and didn’t want to blend very smoothly. I guess I should check colour combos ahead of time even if I am pretty sure they will/should work.

The lid is two layers of embossed CS using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. It looked unfinished with the reverse/debossed side of the embossing showing on the inside and it made the lid stronger as we all know that embossing reduces the strength of CS by at least half and this box went through the mail in an unpadded envelope. (I have a cool way of protecting it from squashing though, ask if you are interested…)

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: JustRite
Images: Doodle Pantry
Ink: Memento black
Paper: yellow CS-SU!, white CS-Taylored Expressions
Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder, ticket corner punch-SU!. Copic markers, foam dots-Jody Morrow

(Contests mostly by Basic Grey. Typically matchboxes are filled with small goodies that complement the box…)

Winged Matchbox

Another Swap-Bot swap to make a matchbox with a focal point that has wings.

I just love this little bear. And don’t those wings look so cute stamped in gold embossing?

There isn’t too much to say that isn’t answered by a recipe.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: TE Beary Special
Ink: Antique Linen and embossing Distress inks
Paper: brown DP-SU!, Aqua DP, pink CS-PTI, kraft CS (sleeve base)-SU!, tracing paper (wings)-stash
Accessories: gold EP-SU!, Brown EP-stash, foam dots-Jody Morrow, heart brad-TE, Copic E71

Vintage Fruit Matchbox

Here’s a cute little MB that almost missed being posted.

I am typically quite critical of my work but at least this time, there is a point to it! I didn’t notice at the time but I am now seeing that the strawberry is completely lacking in highlights which doesn’t match with the other fruits. Also, the shadow is on the opposite side. While I didn’t plan it, I just coloured them, it does look odd all together. I’m actually happy with the cherries, the bright shiny highlight suits the smooth skin; the peaches have softer highlights because the skin is fuzzy muting the brightness of the highlight.

Strawberries are hard to colour because you have to colour around the seeds and that can throw off the best plans you might have for shading, shadowing or highlights. I don’t consider the yellow area a highlight, that is supposed to be where the berry isn’t quite ripe yet which often happens on the side away from the sun. The highlight would actually be on the opposite side, facing the sun at the same angle as on the other fruits. I know that some people like to colour over the seed then reclaim the colour with a colourless blender and then add the yellow for the seeds. I’m not stuck on that technique but I think I might have tried it here because the sees aren’t really showing up as a different colour.

So here’s what I would do if I were colouring this again. I’d make sure the highlights and shadows were consistent on all the fruits. I’d darken the shadows and add some serious highlights on the strawberry and try to add some more life to the leaves. I’d really work to make the seeds yellow. The peach leaf needs more blending to make the leaf look smother.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Fruits-Flourishes, text bkdg-not sure, maybe PTI BB:Hearts?
Ink: memento black, cocoa-SU!
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, cocoa CS-SU!
Accessories: vintage lace-stash, Dew drop, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Copics-sorry, I don’t have the colours, this was from September

New Video! Making a Matchbox with a Scoring Board and an Adorable Nurse Matchbox

As most of you know, I make a lot of matchboxes for Swap-Bot. I started out using s template but I quickly found that tracing it over and over not only took too much time but wasn’t precise enough for my perfectionist soul. So I figured out a way to make one quicker and neater using my Scoring Board!

Then I made a video!

I hope you enjoy it. While you are there, please take a look at my other video for Copic colouring.

I really wanted to make a matchbox using this little PI girl but of course, she is much too large. Not to be defeated, I designed a swap for matchboxes with elements that hang off the edges. I attached her with a magnet and created a little stand. The photo below shows the side view of the stand so you can see how I created it. My little guy wanted to keep her so bad (but I made him something else instead)!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Best Medicine MTF
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, red CS-SU!
Ink: memento black
Accessories: magnets-Basic Grey, Copic markers (sorry, it was months ago so I don’t remember the numbers), MS scoring board

Glitter Masking Technique

I decided to do a cool technique I read about somewhere and since I can’t remember where it came from, I decided to show you the technique here.

Here is the finished product, a matchbox cover. The awesome snowflake pattern is all glitter. You need some wide, flat adhesive; I’ve used Scor-Tape. Then you need to die cut or punch your image from adhesive backing. If you don’t have any on hand, maybe you have some stickers you don’t like or some of those free address labels you can put on envelopes ahead of time. You also need two colours of glitter.

Here you can see how I’ve applied the Scor-Tape. Instead of ripping the edges, cut them so they are smooth and finished. You can also see the adhesive backing has been die cut. Ooops, how did my favourite flavour of Hershey’s Kisses get in there… LOL!

Here I’ve placed the adhesive backing die cut in place. Be careful to place it with the waxy, shiny side down. I started to do it wrong and while it came off, it might not if I’d left it longer.

Here I’ve added the first colour of glitter. TIP: Press down on the glitter to help it stick to the adhesive. You can see there is no glitter yet on the snowflake. The last step is to remove the snowflake and repeat with the last colour of glitter. Don’t forget to press it down too. This can be done with strips of various widths of adhesive. You could do multiple shapes and colours too. It’s a great technique for one layer cards!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Floral Life Matchbox

Here is another matchbox I made for a Swap-Bot swap. This one required you to use your partner’s favourite colour(s)! Fortunately, I got a colour I like! One of my other choices was orange, no offence to orange lovers but to me it is usually yuck!

This purple, SU! elegant eggplant, is one of my favourite purples of all time, especially when used with the muted plums. I can’t believe they got rid of pale plum. Fortunately, I still have lots! I tried colouring the twine with a SU! perfect plum marker but it just doesn’t soak in like my Copics do, maybe they are a bit dry, so I switched. That’s why the colour on the one end is a bit different.

I just love the watercolour look I get from using this stamp with markers. SU! markers this time,I just can’t get the hang of using Copics on stamps. I didn’t even have to spritz the stamp to get this effect. For the generation stamping, I just huffed on the stamp to get the second impression.

This has to be one of my most used stamp sets even though it is relatively new to my collection. Any time I need a pretty and pretty easy card, I go for this set. I can make a card using it in about 5 minutes and even with a bit of jazzing, I can do it in 10! It is appropriate for almost any occasion, for a woman at least! You can’t see it but I coloured over all the purple stamped areas with a light purple Spica pen and since I don’t have a green Spica (what’s with that?), I used yellow. Gives it a subtle but pretty sparkle.

Guess what? I found out the new version of Windows Live Writer (free to download if you use any Windows operating system) supports emoticons!   So get ready to see more of them! In  case you’ve never heard about Live Writer, it is a relatively simple word processing program that uploads your files directly to your blog. As you type, you can see how it will look on your blog complete with font, type size and colour, bulleting, background colour etc. It also includes some simple photo editing, watermarking  etc. as well as the ability to schedule posts and I’ve never had one not show up. (I’ve screwed it up…) It is SOOO much better than typing right into Blogger. Download it today!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Life-PTI
Ink: celery, eggplant-SU!
Paper: white, eggplant CS-SU!
Accessories: pearl-Dollarama, twine-PTI, Copic marker, SU! perfect plum, pale plum, celery markers, 1/2” hole punch-SU!, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Spica pens

May Matchboxes for Whimsical Wednesdays

Our challenge for this week was nice and easy! Make a spring themed project! I was able to combine it with a swap I was working on called May Matchboxes to make two matchboxes and decorate them with May flowers.

Sorry the pictures aren’t so great. I desperately need a macro lens for my camera!

For this one, I used a rounded petal flower die for the basic part of the flower but I trimmed the petals down so they would be semi-pointed like a daffodil. The middle is made from an arc cut from the yellow paper cut with pinking shears to make the ruffley edge. The stamen is made from embroidery floss I stiffened with glue.

This one uses an ancient SU! set but I still like it when I don’t feel like or don’t have time for colouring! It is hard to tell, but the purple tulip is popped up at the bottom and double popped at the top. I may still add some pearls or a butterfly to the top corner.

Be sure to see what the other girls on the team made today! Their links are all on my sidebar. I hope you will leave them all some great comments. This one is so easy, you have to be able to play! Just make a spring-themed card or project and link it up to Whimsical Wednesdays with Mr Linky!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SU!
Ink: Versamark, banana, pale plum, perfect plum, apricot, celery, pink pirouette-SU!
Paper: melon mambo, white, celery, saffron-SU!, sweet blush-PTI
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, white EP (you can’t see it, I used it to colour a brad on the front of the one drawer), Art Institute Glitter (same), satin ribbon-stash (same), brad-Making Memories, embroidery floss (stamen)