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. 

collecting and diplaying one inch scale miniatures...

I've been collecting miniatures since I was a child. Way back then the miniatures were all different scales and mostly cheap things bought at the local five and dime store. I still have a bunch of those old miniatures in my collection and now they are considered kitschy vintage, lol. About ten years ago I started going to miniature shows (such as the Good Sam Showcase of Miniatures) and my collecting turned to artist made miniatures and higher end commercially made miniatures.

Miniatures are perfect for collecting because they don't take up much space to keep and display... until your collection out grows your space and you can't display everything. This is a huge problem because I want to see and enjoy my collection daily, not just store them in a box. So in my search for a better way to use my allotted display space I came upon a labor intensive, hand crafted, four room display box attached to a turn table (lazy Susan). I thought the idea was brilliant and rushed off to beg Leslie to have a kit made to sell through Alpha Stamps. And that is how the 4 Season Spinner was born. Of course my name was vetoed in favor of calling it the Rotating 4 Scene Room Box but no biggie, as I still got to make the first one for myself.

 Isn't it fabulous!? Four whole rooms to decorate!

 I decided to do the four seasons as a theme for this first one. (Yes, I will be making more because it is super easy to construct and I was able to display sooooo much stuff!) The first two rooms I decorated are Spring and Summer. It took so long to do the decorating on these rooms that you will not get to see Fall and Winter until next month when I finish them. Anyway, here's Spring in all her Easter bunny glory...

 I love the Easter Bunny wall paper, so Springy! I must admit most of the smaller stuff in this room is from my collection and is either vintage, handmade, artist made or no longer made. But there is a supply list of the available items, here. Remember, decorating a room like this gives you an excuse to start collecting or to start displaying your collection.

Let's take a look at beautiful, dreamy Summer...

 I decided to do a Victorian style boudoir to represent Summer because I had tons of stuff to use. You may remember the dresser from a previous post. I love the way the dresser turned out so decided to keep it. I did use a bunch of stuff in this room that is actually available, YAY!. Here's the supply list. (Also, the shoes are made by Sylvia Roundtree, (The Doll's Cobbler) and are amazing. But the chair is vintage and was snatched up by me on eBay.)

 By the way, I didn't use permanent glue to attach my stuff to the room this time since I was keeping this for myself and I may want to change things up at some point in the future. I used Bluestik Reusable Adhesive Putty instead of glue. It's cheap and works amazingly well.

Wow! Thanks for staying to the end :) I hope you are inspired to make your own 4 Season Spinner or maybe it will be four of your favorite time periods (18th Century would be fab!) or four rooms inspired by your children or pets, or four fairy tale inspired rooms. The sky's the limit!

a little bit of Easter art to put you in mind of Spring...

I always look forward to Easter and Spring because everything is so colorful and sweet. Fuzzy little bunnies and chicks are adorable! So with this in mind I put together a quick little tutorial to show you how to make a sweet miniature pull toy with a bunny,

  or chick,

 or hedgehog, oh my!

They are super easy to make and just take a few basic tools and supplies. 

Start by cutting out a rectangular shape approximately 11/16" x 7/8" from a thin piece of balsa wood or a piece of heavy chipboard.

 Check the edges for smoothness

 and lightly sand them so they look more finished. I used my Metal Reliefing Block, but an emery board works just fine too.

 Pick out some pretty pastel colors of paint. (Mine are from Martha Stewart Crafts.)

 

I painted two coats on my rectangles, letting the paint dry completely between coats.

 Add a bit of decoration to the painted rectangles and let them dry completely.

 Make a small bow and glue it to your bunny (or other animal, if you want).

 Using a pair of tweezers (I use these tweezers for everything! In fact I often use two pairs at once as my "hands" when working with tiny things.) glue two 6mm doll buttons to one side of the rectangle as shown below.

 When they are completely dry, glue two buttons on the other side of the rectangle.

 

Once those buttons have all dried, you can glue some contrasting 4mm doll buttons on top of them for added dimension. 

 When everything is dry flip the rectangle over to the undecorated side. Cut a piece of baker's twine or rayon cording about 4.5" in length.

 

Knot one end of the cord then glue it to the rectangle.

 When the glue has dried flip the rectangle over and glue your animal in the center.

Ta-da! Now you have a cute miniature Easter toy to add to a doll house or shadowbox or maybe to a diorama... Speaking of dioramas, I just finished working on this one...

 I used air dry clay to make the eggs and "painted" them with Copic pens.

 I love the way they look in that cute little basket!

While I was making Easter things, I though I would try my hand at making a tiny little scene in a bottle...

 I think it came out pretty cute :)

 I was really glad I had my tweezers when I was working on this!

Thanks for reading this really long post! I hope you enjoyed it and want to make your own little pull toy. I you would like to know what I used to make the Just Believe diorama or the Bunny Bottle my supply lists are below :)

Just Believe Diorama Supplies:

Micro Rustic Wheelbarrow
Tiny Wicker Basket
Black & White Bunny Rabbit
Sheet Moss

Carrots - Set of 12
4 Inch Round Wooden Plaque
Flower Soft - Christmas Green
Mushrooms - Turquoise*  

12mm Wooden Drawer Pull or Box Feet
Chitchat Stickers

Bunny Bottle Supplies:

Oval Glass Bottle with Cork*
Bent Nose Tweezers
Small Bright Pink Mulberry Blossoms*
Small Pale Pink Mulberry Blossoms*
Small White Mulberry Blossoms*
1 Inch Mulberry Paper Rose Leaves*
Sheet Moss
Mushrooms - Orange*
1/4 Inch Silk Ribbons - Yellow
1/8 Inch Drapey Ribbons
Mini Rabbit Figurines

happy Easter...

Feel free to use the above vintage Easter image in your artistic endeavors and enjoy your day.