Matchbox Skeleton Shack

I'm running a swap over on UKScrappers at the moment to mak a little Halloween matchbox of horrors because )a) there are no other Halloween swaps on there and (b) I do love me a good matchbox.

The swap is to decorate a matchbox and make a little book to fit inside it. I may (ahem) have gone a little overboard this time as here is what I've ended up with. I was aiming for the look of an old abandoned haunted shack, and although I'm not too sure about my attempts at cobwebs I'm happy with the overall result.

There are three medium sized matchboxes glue together to make the house as you can see below. All covered with hand cut and inked paper to look like old weatherboard.  I used one of those plastic rulers with an image that appears to move as you move the ruler (sorry, I have no idea what the name for them is) to line the matchboxes. The ruler has marching skeletons on it which,, if you take the little books out can just be seen through the windows of the shack (hence skeleton shack).

The roof is made with a straw chimney and two smaller matchboxes inside - these hold little Halloween tickets that came from here and here which I resized to fit.

Inside each f the larger matchboxes are some little books that I made, and I will leave it for the recipient to find out what's inside.

I hope my swap partner likes it and thanks for looking.

scifi month continues or aye aye, thats still no moon!

Olo...

With international yarn bombing day less than a month away - 11 June 15 don't cha know - I thought it was time I got my act in gear,

My crocheting seems to have picked up the pace a bit since I started with my monsters around Feb. and since then I've done a couple of sci-fi related items.

The latest of which is my Death Star cushion

Left: First death star pre Kaboom right: second half built effect DS, on either side of the cushion.

 As much fun you can have with 2 balls of metallic silver wool from the £1 shop, (I probably would have used less if didn't double up so it doesn't end up holey,) this pattern, a 4.5mm hook and a few hours.

I also made my first crocheted surprise gift for a friend who had seen this dude on fb and fell in love, this pattern was from here

and finally as a birthday pressie how about the beautiful baymax from big hero 6. I challenge anyone to watch it and not cry. 

As I've been having so much fun I have 3 mini crochets to give away, a Marvin (from HHGTTG) head, a Baymax head, and a teeny tiny baby death star like this one:

all you have to do is leave a comment here or on our FB page for a chance to win. 

And talking of winning it seems like everyone has forgotten about the chance to win real craft vouchers from either Art from the Heart or Country View Crafts.  Meaning you've an even better chance of winning :)  

We honestly couldn't make it any easier, any project with any thing remotely not real, is in with a chance, show us your myths, monsters, or magical beasts, space, superheros and everything in between before midnight on the 25th May.

Talking of mythical beasts, I'm taking part in a tunnel book and themed mine around the Discworld.

This is how it looked setting off

the cover isn't as detailed as it should be but I was worried it might get damaged a bit as it circles the country so I plan to finish it off on its return.

as you can see lurking at the back of the book is an eye, I wanted it to be a bit like a dragon so I dragged out my new favourite stamp (creative expressions), flooded it with a couple of layers of gesso and left it to dry for a couple of days.  Once it had well and truly dried I gently peeled it off the stamp, and was left with a sheet of flexible embellishment, hopefully resembling dragon scales.

I added a bit paynes grey acrylic, dusted heavily with mica, painted some varigated blue gold leaf to create the shine in the eye, added a cabachon and fabric for an eyelid and voila:

I wonder what stamps you have that would make fabulous gesso embellishments?

pop back next week to see what else we've been up to and thanks for looking

Jas x

An Ininkz Link-up

8. Mini Matchbox Journals - and a GIVEAWAY!

Details of the giveaway are at the end of this post.

A fun mini project - little matchbox Halloween journals. Perfect for using up those scraps of paper. A big thanks you to Gill who made some mini journals for a swap that I ran recently, and who inspired me to make spookier versions.

Remember those little matchbox monsters I made HERE. Well, I wanted something to fill the matchboxes with. Of course, I could have filled them with sweeties, but then I’d have just eaten them! 

Instead, I cut 31 rectangles of watercolur paper and leftover scrapbook paper a little smaller than the inside of the matchboxes.  I then punched holes in the top left corner of each one with my cropodile and inked around the edges. 

For the covers, I used greyboard from the back of old paper packs, and decorated them in a variety of ways. Ready made embellishments, inked embossed images, stamps, googly eyes, and my version of the journal covers that Lou made HERE (thanks Lou). Having punched the holes the same as for the pages, I set eyelets into the covers for a bit of extra sturdiness.

To make the closure,  you need something elastic - a narrow hair tie is ideal and was just the right size. I love it when a plan comes together! Punch an additional hole in the lower middle of the back cover and push your hair tie/elastic through that hole and then set with an eyelet which should hold it in place. Trim any stray elastic at the back.

I added a small book ring through all the holes and some little charms and 'tis done!

And they fit perfectly in the matchboxes.

I have entered this into the Corrosive Challenges blog.

I am giving away six of these matchbox monsters, complete with mini journals inside. All you have to do is leave a comment on ANY post by midnight (GMT) Friday 10 October and six lucky winners will be announced on my next post on Saturday 11 October, so check back than to see if you have won.  I will happily post to anywhere in the world. If you have already left a comment, then I thank you for taking the time and you are already included. Good luck.

Bex