the vital question...

 Do you have a couple of hours to be creative? Then why not grab the new Architextures 2 paper set from Alpha Stamps and collage your heart out! 

Almost all of the images I used on this project come from that paper set and they are pretty fabulous. Besides the cooking and food images there are also travel images and wonderful floral papers. I haven't been this excited over a group of papers in ages!

I started this project with one Tiny Matchbox Theatre and one of the new, and adorable, Framed Matchbox Books. I collaged similar images onto both pieces so that they had a nice cohesiveness. Stacking them and tying a ribbon around them, when I was finished, made them seem like a cute little set.

 I love this amazing vintage cookbook image, from the Architextures 2 paper set, as the cover for the matchbox book. It is the perfect size and so quirky. A bit of washi tape works well to bind the cover together. I used the same tape on the matchbox theatre so that they match and both look like books.

 Inside the matchbox book is a strawberry with butterfly wings (sparkling with a bit of Diamond Stickles) just because I liked how it looked and it made me laugh. The few quotes on this project, including "can you keep a secret?" are from the Words collage sheet.

 Slide open the matchbox theatre and inside is a layered group of paper wine bottles and a 3D resin french bread. I think the bottles look pretty realistic with the bread because I used black adhesive foam to add depth. The bottles in the front (of this little vignette) have 2 pieces of tape stacked, one on top of the other, to give them more depth.

This was a pretty quick and easy project to do, most of the time was spent "fussy cutting" images from the paper and gluing the chipboard matchbox theatre and book together. I love doing collage projects like this because you can't get it wrong as long as you like how it looks :)

Thanks for reading my post, it is always appreciated. You can see my supply list here.

tiny skyline sihouette book in a matchbox drawer...

I love this sweet new chipboard Matchbox Skyline Book from Alpha Stamps. It's the perfect size to knock out a quick, quirky art project in a couple of hours.

I used several different papers from Maps, Text & Ledgers 8x8 Paper Set as my base and as most of my collage images too (The images inside each tiny window are postage stamps from one of the papers in the set). The butterflies and the text "the pursuit of a paradox" are the only exceptions.

The tiny windows are from House Ornament Window Trims, and I darkened them with a brown stamp pad I had on my desk. I also used the pad to darken the edges of my paper for a grungy look.

 Although the skyline book has fold perforations, I cut mine apart after papering the front and back, because I wanted to put it back together using decorative tape, as I really love the way that adds to the grunge esthetic.

I used Diamond Stickles on the butterfly wings and added an adorable Small Brass Hitch Fastener to the matchbox drawer for a handle.

The whole project was finished in one afternoon as I listened to a favorite podcast. I find it so relaxing to make smaller creative projects using very few supplies when I've had a stressful week.

Thanks for reading this post. You can find my supply list here.

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. 

a couple of handmade Halloween decorations...

This week I whipped up a couple of cute Halloween decorations to add to my Etsy shop. I've been kind of lazy about keeping my shop stocked lately and I was feeling guilty.

First up is a coffin shaped shrine/shadowbox featuring a little pumpkin headed witch swinging on a broom under a happy moon. The quote reads:

When witches go riding,

and black cats are seen,

the moon laughs and whispers,

'tis near Halloween.

I used moss covered twigs, I found while hiking in the mountains, to make a tree. The moss had turned pale yellow as it dried out so I painted it bright green. The swing is a Miniature Rustic Broom tied to the tree with baker's twine. The sweet little witch is from my Little Demons Collage Sheet with a witch hat from my Halloween Dress Up Half Sheet. 

My supply list can be seen here.

Next up is an adorable potion bottle shaped wall hanging. I love how this came out and will find it hard to part with!

All of the cute pumpkin headed children I used came from my Halloween Darlings Collage Sheet.

I fell in love with that Wicker Baby Carriage and really couldn't wait to use it in a piece of art :)

 I used two sets of  Chipboard Potion Bottles to create the base. I simply glued the potion bottles side by side onto a piece of 12"x12" cardstock (after papering the fronts of the bottles).

 Twelve inches wasn't quite long enough so I had to add a small piece to the end. I used washi tape to hold it together until the final bottle was glued in place.

 

 After the glued dried, I cut the excess paper off with a sharp craft knife and sanded the edges smooth with an emery board. Super easy! I added two strips of Half-Round Dresden Borders - Black across the front of the bottles to give it added stability (and make it pretty!).

In order to add the Halloween Fiber Set hanging sash to my bottles I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes in the sides of the bottles then strung the fibers through the holes and knotted them.

My supply list for this project can be seen here.

Thanks for dropping by and reading my post. I hope you are inspired to go make something :)

Alice in the library... and outside

 Alpha Stamps has a new monthly kit for May and it includes this awesome Gatefold Window Card.

 I used two of the gatefold window cards to make a sweet little double sided Alice in Wonderland shrine. On one side there is an outside scene with fake grass and a window box and lovely pink roses. You can view the library through the window...

 if you look closely you can see the Cheshire cat sitting on a shelf in the bookcase.
Btw, I used the Finnabair Art Extravagence Rust Paste Set to paint the window frames and the flower box because I swear I'm in love with this stuff!

From the side you can kinda see both little scenes...

 The flip side of my shrine has a library scene and you can look outside. I used the Alice Plays Croquet Collage Sheet for my outside view. 

 You can tell you're in the library because there are stacks of books everywhere.

The White Rabbit is looking a bit puzzled by the butterfly sitting on a stack of books and perhaps by the mushrooms sprouting out of the floor.

Those wonderful framed paintings are cut out of one of the papers included in the May kit :)

If you'd like to see a complete list of the supplies I used click here.

 Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. I hope you have a fun and creative day!

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 ;)

Shaker Ornaments!!

Shaker ornaments are all the rage right now, just search Pinterest and you will see tons of examples. But how can you make them yourself? Well it's easy with the awesome new Chipboard Ornament Layers from Alpha Stamps. These babies are fun, easy and are only limited by your imagination!

I whipped these up in a couple of days with most of the time devoted to glue drying time.

Look at that, the backs are as pretty as the fronts!

 Let's take a closer look at each individual ornament, shall we...

 This beautiful snowy scene was created using Deer in Woods Ornament Layers, silver and white paint, recycled sari silk ribbon and lots of glitter and sequins.

 I created this simple distressed ornament using Tim Holtz Christmas Tidings 8x8 Paper Stash, Stairs Christmas Morning Ornament Layers, and Hanging Stockings Ornament Layers. I made it double sided by gluing the two die-cut inserts back to back with a sheet of cardstock in between.

 I did the same double sided trick with this ornament using Christmas Delivery 6x6 Paper Pad, Ice Skaters Ornament Layers, and Flying Sleigh Ornament Layers.

Since I created two double sided ornaments I had leftover outer rings and clear plastic domes. Not wanting to waste those parts I decided to use a couple of collage sheet images from the new Gnome & Mushroom Ornaments Collage Sheet to make up an additional ornament...

 Isn't it adorable! I love gnomes and mushrooms! And snow, and moss, and buttons...

 In order for the images to be glued to the outer ring when creating this ornament sandwich, I had to leave a bit of white paper around the edges. Don't worry about seeing it when finished, though, as it is covered up once you glue it to the outer ring.

 Since it is necessary to keep the parts flat once you put the glitter in the dome, I traced a line around my roughly cut collage image so I would know exactly where to place the image once the glue was applied and I was ready to attach it :)

I truly enjoyed making these ornaments! It was fun finding stuff to put in them to shake around. My main ingredients for all of the shakers were Flower Soft - Polar White, a fine white iridescent glass glitter from my stash and 1mm Micro Beads - Clear AB. In addition I added sequins, tiny buttons and polymer clay cane slices depending on the theme of the ornament. You can see my complete supply list here.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope I inspired you to go make some shaker ornaments for yourself :)