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.

Not so weird ...

Now I know that we here at the weird scissors usually like to bring you something a little different. This project - well not so much - but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I do love me a matchbox so I couldn't resist the mini matchbox swap set up by the lovely Sian. My partner wanted art journal prompts and, after going round the houses somewhat, I got there in the end even if I did make not one but three matchboxes.

So, here they are ...

A little glimpse of what's inside ...

This is the first one I made by cutting up some magazines, a few stamped images and a lot of ink. It's basically a collection of mini art journal pages. Not really prompts, more inspiration perhaps, so time to do another one.

This probably fits the brief the best, although it's actually the last one I did. Lots of inky, painty, stencilled and stamped backgrounds with a some prompts and a bit of washi tape thrown in for good measure. There are over 30 cards to keep my partner going for a while.

And finally a little bonus box. I went completely off piste with this one after I had some success making faux leather out of paper. It came out really well, although I was just experimenting and have not been able to recreate the results since! Anyway, I used the faux leather as the cover for a little mini journal. It's the first time I've actually done proper sewn in signatures but it won't be the last.

The book is just a collection of papers, many from vintage books and maps, with bits and bobs added here and there, plus some more quotes paper clipped in that can be used in the book or for further inspiration.

I hope my partner likes it. I've had a lot of fun so I may just make some more for myself.

Have a good one and thanks for looking.

Bex

Post credit cut scene.

All decent scifi/superhero film has a cut scene at the end of the millions of credits that feel like they go on for a fortnight? in good tradition here is ours....

the credits are really all just about money... and following sad passing of Leonard Nemoy, the geek in me found joy at the request from the Canadian bank asking people to stop spockifying the $5 notes. the rebel in me had to just have a go.... printed the notes in full colour, drew on the rough outline and then coloured in with fineliner - not as good as some, but will look nice in a UFO somewhere.

have a go yourself, although I haven't managed to figure out how to mess with the UK notes yet,  so for the moment I just keep searching for more inspiration. Check out these 

INTERNATIONAL DAYS:  Yesterday was international superman day and in his honour I created these little cards, for a time I was addicted to creating 6 word story round ups on my favourite movies/superheros so these cards will be getting added to the collection.

just an hour or so work, mainly used waiting for things to dry, first draw out the logo very lightly, and paint with my favourite tool the drawing gum, leave to dry, and then lightly roughen up in some places so there are no perfect lines.  sprayed dylusion inks on a glass mat with some water and slapped the paper down right over the top. leave to dry.  then rub off the drawing gum and sketch out your superhero. colour in with a black pen and KAPOW a mini watercolour effect card.

GIVEAWAY NEWS!!  

finally I get to tell you who won...

 just to let you know Lou has picked the winners as: 

Sarah Harris: Slaughter house 5

Emily Kate:  Loki

Frances Wybrow: Discworld Chunky

all that is left is to thank everyone for taking part, its been wonderful to see the beautiful art that is being created in all its different guises    

and to know in this mighty big world, universe, and ether we are not alone.

I'll post this on FB and contact the winners directly for a £10 voucher of their choice from either Country View Crafts or Art from the Heart.

let us know if you have any ideas of any interesting 'days' coming up and we;ll see if we can do a project to match, and I'm sure we'll be back long before Halloween.

Laugh, love, live long and prosper.

jas x

the end... or is it?

Sadly Sci-fi month is coming to an end, I have really enjoyed the content seeing peoples work and having regular themed projects.  and although its only 155 days away, its seems a awful long time to Halloween..I wonder if there are any special/weird event days coming between then and now? I know international speak like a pirate day is in my calender for Sept 19th, post on FB any others you can find or think of, and we may just make the odd special appearance. :)

Anyway that all being said, onto the main post.

International Towel day in honour of Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy was on the 25th May, as you are required to carry a towel with you all day, I had a trawl through the Interweb and stumbled across this beautiful idea  and since the beginning of the month my towel has been by my side because you never know when you're going to need it.

I slightly changed my design and it is still a work in progress. I used 2 reasonably cheap hand towels, and laid them top to tail on top of each other off centre, this gave me the top front strip as a design feature and an inner label so you could tell what it was, once they were pinned together I chopped roughly 15 inches from the top.(*add any lettering/patches to the top one here before stitching the layers together across the top) This becomes your flap, and back,  I also included a layer of wadding here.

I then lined up the remaining the same way to create the front/bottom of the bag, and again cut 15 inches off, stuffing the same way and stitched them together across the top.

Because I haven't stitched the sides I turned them inside out and stitched the front and back together across the middle so its one long length again,

Turned them back through, I followed the other blog's directions for a square bottom,

Sadly my machine didn't much care for stitching towels so I did end up going through a couple of needles, and it just didn't want to play nice with the lettering so I've ended up stitching a patch on.

I uses the wastage to cut a thin strap, stitched it up the middle to stop fraying and joined sections using a cross pattern,

Stitched up the sides and boosh. one rough handbag shape.

Finally all that's left is to add some extra retro badges and walk around town with your bag flashing off your nerdness to the max!!

The giveaway ends midnight so don't forget to use these last few hours to show off your wares (as it were) either follow the link or post on FB.

goodbye and thanks for all the fish.  :)

jas x

LOC #80 upcycle/recylcle

Hello

Sadly this is our last LOC lay out for a while as other personal commitments have meant we're leaving them, but that doesn't mean you can't still play with them on their weekly challenge site.

with it being scifi month I went with this image  from Oddball art company she's a cute little believer that wants to be taken away.

The recycle bit comes from using cardboard from a beer box which I painted roughly in silver,  I then splatted some drawing gum on it and painted over it again with a mixture of violet and paynes grey (currently my favourite colour of all time) once its all dry, just rub over with a soft cloth and all the tiny splatters come away to give a very busy galaxy effect - helped a little bit with some teeny tiny stars.

I upcycled some metal self adhesive tape from the DIY store (thank you Chris!) and turned it into the Moon and Earth by dry embossing (using an tiny embossing tool) the design from the back and front to make the craters stand out,  then colouring with some black posca, I did the same with the earth but used glass paint to make the colours shine.. I also cut out a flying saucer but for the life of me can't find it, so that will have to be added later.

The lady herself I coloured with my usual watered down crayola pens, added the odd hint of metallic pen to give her boots and goggles a space feel.

finally stencilled the wording with silver paint and ran around the letters with a pen to make them seem more joined up.

Don't forget, there is only a day to share your sci-fi/geeky/fantasy creations here or on our facebook group for a chance to win crafty vouchers worth real money.

jaz x 

Sci-fi month and comic boots

No, that's not a typo in the title - I really do mean comic boots.  I love my comic books and you can't do sci-fi and fantasy without getting them in there somehow.

Now, I have this pair of rather boring black boots that I jus don't wear anymore. I also have some old French comics (Bayard) and Mod Podge.  I cut the comics into individual pictures, covered the back with the Mod Podge and stuck the pictues onto the boot, then covered the front of the picture with more Mod Podge to seal. Leave to dry and easy peasy lemon squeezy you have a new look for some old boots. Plus, if I get bored when I'm out I can do a bit of reading now.

A couple of things. Firstly, you may want to check that the comics you are cutting up are not valuable. I only had a few (enough for the boots at least) and they were in terrible condition anyway. Secondly, test the ink for fastness by smearing some of the Mod Podge over it and letting it dry. You don't want to end up with an inky smearing mess now do you. Thirdly, have fun with them. I wouldn't suggest that they will stand up to heavy wear and tear, but they certainly are a talking when you when them on a night out.

Don't forget, you still have a week to share your sci-fi/geeky/fantasy creations here or on our facebook group for a chance to win crafty vouchers worth real money.

Live long and prosper y'all.

Bex

Loc #79 Lacy sunshine

Hello

Well this little sweetie was just too good to miss with it being sci-fi month, he's from Lacy sunshine and he's called Sleepytime Danni. Part of the challenge was to only use black white and one other colour, so purple it is.

I used the gesso technique I highlighted during my last 'thats still no moon' scifi post. added a cute dragonish comment. coloured with my usual crayola pens and added glitter.

Don't forget there's still time to participate in our craft vouchers giveaway - we've extended the deadline an extra week and have finally had some entries.. there is a fb thread where you can post your entries or you can add a link to your work here

its still scifi May month and I can't wait to see what Rebecca has up her sleeve for us this weekend

Have a good one

Jas x