Matchbox Darlings

I've had a huge boxful of matchboxes lying around for quite some time, now, and I've decided to use them up to make things for the cartons.

Each of the matchbox treasuries is made up of three to five matchboxes. First I decorated the boxes. Then I painted leftover strips of book board in colors that match the boxes and, once the paint was dry, I stamped and embossed on the visible sides of the strips. (Not shown here.)

After cutting the strips to size, I glued on the matchboxes. Some of the strips are longer, so they can be hung up, if desired. I then used scraps of book board to make nameplates for the sets. After that, all I had to do was embellish. I'm actually quite pleased with myself, because I managed to use some of my hard to get "perfect" embellishments that I'd been saving for some project or other, for example, the rusted hardware. It's such a relief to be actually using the stuff instead of hoarding it.

Oh, and the boxes also have an inner life...

See the Art Angelix blog for pictures of other boxes.

Three Amulet Pouches

These are three of the four amulet pouches I made this week. (The other one is for me, and you can see it on the Art Angelix blog. Link on the right.)

The pouches are made of felted wool on fleece with gold mesh sewed on top. Each is embellished differently and has a handle of gold cord.

Anyway, if you'd like one of these pouches, all you need to do is sign up for "Art In A Carton". Each of the cartons contains two or three items. It's essentially a three for three swap.

Details can be found in this post:

http://art-in-a-carton.blogspot.com/2007/12/art-in-carton.html

Rebecca's Carton Arrived

I had a lovely email from Rebecca at Cre8iva to say that her carton has arrived. I'll link to her post on the Cre8tiva blog as soon as it's uploaded.

http://cre8tiva.blogspot.com/

Jill's Carton Underway

Just a quickie tonight to say that I posted Jill's carton off to her yesterday. In the meantime, I have a pile of cartons and a veritable MOUNTAIN of art here, so tell your arty friends about the project!

Fourth Lady

I'm just finishing off odds and ends of project that have been on the workbench in various stages of completion. This is the fourth of the shadow box ladies. I'll definitely make more of these "just because" and for Art In A Carton, if and as I find suitable boxes. The bow was in a carton of junk someone was going to throw away. Just lucky I happened to be in the right place at the right time. It's quite old, and it has that genuine vintage look and feel to it.

Beaded Red Doll

This doll will be off on her journey in a carton later today, or early tomorrow at the latest. She is approximately seven inches tall. The body is unbleached cotton spray dyed with Ranger color washes. The face is air-drying clay, and the beads are of various materials: glass, silver, and bone. I'm not sure whether the coral colored beads are plastic or coral: they seemed a bit heavy to be plastic, though. As usual, I also used various fibres and scraps of ribbon trim.

Gena Received Her Carton

Gena is the only participating artist (so far) who doesn't yet have a blog, so I'm just posting to say that she mailed to let me know her carton arrived today. Gena wrote: "I just received your lovely art in a carton! What fun. What a great idea you have. I can tell that it is right up your alley. Why you are starting to mass produce little treasures!"

Final Shadow Card

This is one of the two final shadow cards (for the time being) I made this weekend. As before, I've posted one here and the other on Art Angelix (link on the right). I think I'll be moving on to play with some tunnel books today.

Yet Another Shadow Card

Here is one of two shadow cards I finished today. The other is on the Art Angelix blog.

I've got two more of these to complete, then I'll move on to other things-in-waiting for a while.

Shadow Card

This is one of the shadow cards I made earlier today, for inclusion in cartons. I've got another couple almost finished and shall post them in the coming day or two. The images are from my collection of cabinet cards.

You can see a second card on the Art Angelix blog.

Cartons In Flight

We're underway! I sent out the first three cartons this afternoon: to Rebecca in the USA, Chantal in the UK, and to Gena in France. The fourth, which goes to Jill, will probably go out this weekend. What a thrill.

Beaded Fabric Doll

My beading skills are pretty rudimentary, but nonetheless I'm often amazed at how easy it is to take something simple and make it look pretty good through the addition of a little beading and plenty of fibres.

This is quick and easy triangular fabric doll, made from a pattern I use often. I used some heavy undyed cotton for the body, then (and you are reading this correctly) wound up painting the completed body with terracotta acrylic paint. I'd actually wanted to try out a sample pack of Lumieres, but couldn't lay my hands on them in a hurry.

The face is made from black Sculpey airdrying clay, burnished with dark gold Rub n' Buff.

The pale coral beads were a bargain bin find. They come in clear, matted, and shiny and look classy.

Cartons, Cartons Everywhere

Here are a few of the cartons in progress. Here, I painted the cartons with a background color, sometimes smooth, sometimes structured, then glue on either doodled panels or images cut from a 1950s song book with eastern European folk art images.

Tomorrow I collect another dozen cartons. My daughter says she wants her kitchen space back, so I'd better pick up the loot before she loses patience and tosses it in the trash can.

I made several fabric dolls for the cartons over the weekend. I hope to finish some of them tonight and send out the first cartons on Wednesday. With luck, I'll be able to post photos of the dolls tomorrow.

Creating Cartons

Well, the best laid plans, and all that... I was laid low this past week by what started out as a common cold and developed into bronchitis and sinus trouble. I'm feeling better now, though, and will soon be back on track with this and other projects.


I wasn't idle, in spite of feeling rotten. One of the great things about the artsy life is that you can do something most of the time, if you are determined and dedicated. Whenever I had the energy, I spent time painting cartons and decorating cartons or drawing panels to decorate them.

I'm into doodles at the moment, so I doodle away in the evenings with the TV for company. Most of the time I couldn't tell you a thing about the content of what's on TV, but I get a lot of art done. something tells me I'm almost doodled out for a while, now, and the next batch of cartons will have other decorative elements.

I thought you might be interested in seeing how the cartons evolve, so that's what these photos show. I have a bunch of cartons done, and I'll post photos of them in the days to come.