Easter celebration boxes...

Alpha Stamps has a new monthly kit out today and I helped design it :) Since Easter is on April 1st (April Fools Day, lol) this year, March's kit is Easter themed. Some of the things in the kit are gorgeous papers from Bo Bunny, an adorable Happy Easter collage sheet from Catnip Designs (me), and a sweet shadowbox with an egg shaped cover. Here's a photo of the box I made using the kit along with some other goodies...

Isn't it sweet? There are three other shadowboxes and lids available, in the Easter theme, that get progressively larger in size. I, of course, had to make one of each...

I used paper from the new Jubilee 6x6 pad for this cute bunny box. In the box is a nest I built with eggs from the kit nestled inside it.

This adorable chick box has a vintage bunny girl ornament holding a fuzzy yellow chick and Easter basket inside.

*Note: It's a good idea to reinforce that little piece of die-cut chipboard between the chicks legs. I just glued a small piece of toothpick to the back of mine.

 This chocolate bunny box is my favorite! I made an Easter tree decorated with vintage colored eggs, a vintage basket and vintage look bunnies that are available at Alpha Stamps :)

Look how cute that bunny is...

And, yes, I did add Easter grass and colored eggs to that tiny basket!

Here's a photo of the whole group...

I bet you're wondering what that thing in the middle is, am I right?

Here's a closer look...

I love the the shutters we recently got in from Prima so I had to incorporate them into my Easter group. Amazingly, the rabbit cover from the Easter Covers for Mini Shadowboxes set fits inside the shutters perfectly. How cool is that :)
Now, I wanna share a little tutorial with you on making your shadowboxes deeper than they actually are. Although the depths range from 7/8" to around 1 1/2" and may be just fine to accommodate a paper collage or thinner multi-media vignette, I chose to use fatter items to create my vignettes. This made me scramble to create more space! Here's how I did it...

 Build your shadowbox and ink or paint any areas that may peek through the paper you cover the box with.

 Cover your box with paper inside and out.

 Paint your box cover on both sides as well as the edges. Notice I removed the tabs used to make this a removable cover.

 Paper your cover and cut out the egg shaped window with a craft knife. Then carefully fold the edges of the cover around the shadowbox to ensure a proper fit.

 Cut up a small cork, dowel or piece of balsa wool into four equally sized pieces. Mine are 1/4".

 Create a cute vignette inside the shadowbox. Hot glue the four pieces of cork/wood to the corners of the shadowbox so they don't stick out beyond the outer edges.

Lay the cover over the cork/wood pieces and fold the edges down into place.

Holding the cover in place, as shown above, lift up one flap and run a strip of hot glue along the shadowbox edge. Press the flap down until the glue cools. Repeat until all four sides are permanently glued down. That's all there is to it.
So who's ready to start making some cute Easter boxes?? Come on! You know you want to!
You can find my complete supply list at this link. 

getting back to my roots...

I've been doing a lot of multi media and three dimensional art lately and felt the need to do something a bit simpler and more collage-y. So, I grabbed one of the adorable Hidden Drawer Book Box - ATC Size and a brand spankin' new Saucy 6x6 Paper Pad and got to work creating this sweet "Let's Eat" shrine.

With the exception of one tiny little pitcher of milk, the whole thing is made of paper. Some of the paper is from a new collage sheet I created just for this project. It has lots of kitschy images of food and people eating and goes great with the Saucy paper.

I also begged Leslie to have a little set of chipboard kitchen shapes cut, thus giving birth to Tiny Kitchen Items :)

Don't they look adorable painted black?

Inside my little shrine is a darling little girl, dressed for Sunday dinner, with a straw hat perched jauntily on her head. It appears dinner is just being served...

Haha! Looks like my kind of dinner! Yummy cupcakes and a glass of milk, what could be sweeter? And there's that tiny Pitcher of Milk I spoke of earlier.

On the back is an old advertisement for sugar...

 I hope you enjoyed my kitschy sweet Let's Eat shrine and it will inspire you to either go out and eat a dozen doughnuts or, better yet, make a shrine of your very own!

Here's a link to the products I used ;)

retro Christmas and bitchy women...

What do retro Christmas and bitchy woman have in common, you ask, why Authentique Paper of course! Two of my favoritest paper lines at the moment are Retro Christmas and Fabulous and they are brand spankin' new at Alpha Stamps! I couldn't resist making sample art with both pads as they are heavy on mid century kitsch and feature lively vintage color pallets.

First up is a Sweet Retro Christmas Cabinet to make you wish Christmas would get here quicker! Yikes! Forget I said that... we haven't even celebrated Halloween yet! Anyway, here's a look at the cabinet...

 A festive wreath and gingerbread boy and girl decorate the front of the cabinet.

 Opening the right hand door reveals a red tree festooned with snow and snowmen!

I used a pair of craft scissors to cut the "branches" on back of the tree off so it would fit better in the cabinet.

 The left hand door opens to show off a pretty candy jar decoration...

 and a teddy bear opening up a gift.

I really love the plaid paper from the Retro Christmas pad... it adds a touch of coziness to the mix.

I'm still pondering adding an image to the back of the cabinet as it looks so bare, but, will anyone see the back of the cabinet when it's being displayed? What would you suggest?

Moving on to bitchy women, lol... Using the kitschy Fabulous paper pad I made a Bitch Book Box filled with ATCs. 

 This project came together super fast using the easily glued together ATC Sized Faux Book Box. I used some book page images from a copy of Looking Glass Book Box Collage Sheet Part 1 that didn't get used on a previous project so it looks like a real little book. The red glasses the blonde is wearing are cut out of the glasses paper in the Fabulous 12x12 Paper Pad. They fit her perfectly!

 The title down the spine (and the bitchy quote on the front!) lets you know right away what this book is all about!

Inside I used three different prints from the Fabulous paper pad and a quote from Bitchy Words Collage Sheet that says "Let's get drunk and judge people" I'm still looking for the perfect image to add to that open space above the quote...

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings today and are inspired to go make something fun! If you're interested in the products I used you can find my supply lists by clicking on these links Sweet Retro Christmas or Bitch Book Box.