Tin of the Month Club, January

Early last fall, I found a set of 12 small tins (about 1 1/2 inch in diameter), designed for jewelry parts storage. They were on sale at Tuesday Morning, and although I didn't have a plan for them, I couldn't resist them at the low, low price of $1.99. Why I didn't purchase every set they have, I don't know.

Fast forward to this week. I don't currently have any pending projects, so I pulled out the tins and started fiddling around. I ended up making a Halloween tin that I was pretty happy with. I thought about making a few more with a Halloween theme, but since there were 11 tins left, I thought it would be fun to make one tin for each month of the year. It's now my 2015 challenge to myself.

Each month, barring disease, disaster, or just plain slackness, I'll post up one of these little tins. At the end of the year, the whole year will be represented in tins.

Here's January. I photographed it on a black background so the trim would show.

Here it is on white. Once I get all twelve done, I want to make a composite photo of them all together.

Sorry, the Halloween tin will have to wait until October. But February is right around the corner. Stay tuned!

Dottie at the Circus: Mini Altoids Tin

Here's a little Mini Altoids tin circus, featuring Dottie, a fine circus elephant performer. I removed the lid of the tin, and used it as a floor, where Dottie can perform.

Dottie is a tiny plastic elephant, but I made her a little hat and blanket to dress her up for her circus debut. The hat is made from Apoxie Sculpt, painted red with white dots. The little pom pom on top is a clear seed bead. The blanket is a little snippet of ribbon, with painted on white "fringe".

The flags are made with matchsticks and the same striped paper I used on the sides of the tin.

A tiny circus poster on the back, advertising the elephant show:

And there you have it, a tiny circus that can fit in the palm of your hand.

Wonderbox

My last project of 2014, and first to be published in '15! Alpha Stamps sent me a twinchie shadowbox to decorate. I decided on an "Almost Valentine" theme and a red and turquoise scheme, which matches my craft room. I have so many great collage sheets that I've collected, so I pulled them out and found some great images. Most of them are love related, but some, I chose for their color alone, like the elephant on the bicycle, Red Riding Hood, who's now reaching for some pie, and the curious rabbit with the little mushrooms.

Cupids hold a banner made from washi tape and baker's twine.

Here you can see that some of the squares are elevated, in order to give the surface more depth. All I did was cut some small squares of corrugated and place them under a few of the twinchies. Some of the blocks are as deep as the cubbies, but others have one, two, or even three layers of corrugated supporting them. You can also see the stripey sides of the box in this shot. I love that paper; it's so fun.

Here are a few close ups of some of the squares. The figures are elevated with foam tape. Some ladies, one with a gentleman caller:

  

Some queens, a fancy lady, and a loner:

This was a really fun project with only one real downside: my craft room is a huge mess now! My New Year's resolution is to straighten out my work space.

If you'd like to see a list of all the wonderful Alpha Stamps goodies that went into the making of this box, click here.