Flashback: Fairy Godmother

I did this several years ago for a swap on Craftster.org. I found the most perfect photo of a fairy godmother (look at her! I'm sure that's who she was!) in an antique mall, and crowned her with a cigar band crown. She proclaims, as any good godmother would: "Anything you wish, sweetie!"

This art is mounted on a 4" by 4" board. There are lots of advantages to being married to a woodworker: I get all the scraps!

I hope this godmother has performed her duties well in her new home.

Flashback: Mother's Little Helper Tin

The world (especially now) can be a crazy place. Here's a little tin I made a few years back, to hold "Mother's Little Helpers". Can't everyone use one of these? Perfect for mints, or whatever your "little helper" happens to be.

Flashback: Fairy Tale Tin

Since Photobucket is now charging for what used to be their free photo hosting, many of my old photos posted here and to Craftster.org are now not showing up. I have been going through my Photobucket account and downloading as many photos as possible to restore the photos to both sites. Meanwhile, I've found lots of work that was done before I started this blog in 2011, so I thought I'd post some of those things here.

This one is an Altoids tin with a fairytale theme. I'll sprinkle more oldies but goodies in as I find them.

Lucky Stars

Did you ever wish upon a star, or thank your lucky stars? Well, then you're going to want to meet this little pixie, who sits up near the moon and collects those stars, making them available to those of us who need them. I made this tiny shadowbox using a Matchbox Cabinet from Alpha Stamps. Here's the little pixie, perched on a shelf, removing stars from the sky. He'll fill that bottle and store it below with previously harvested stars.

In the photo below, you can see that the frame and the moon cutout in the top half of the shadowbox are raised to give the sky dimension. The bottom frame is flush to the back to provide more room for the tiny cigar box and jars of stars. The half circle on top of the shadowbox is an old wooden wheel from a set of block, cut in half.

That's a big jar for a pixie to fill! Luckily, there are plenty of stars in the sky.

Here are a few details. There's already one star in the jar, and our little friend is getting ready to add another.

And here's his collection: some wishing stars, one very special lucky star, and a bottle of dreams with a star stopper. There's also a box of large stars for those who need them most.

The jars and box are very tiny!

A few notes on construction: here's the tiny box before assembly. I found it easiest to cover the pieces with paper before gluing them together. It might be easier yet to assemble and then paint. Using a lightweight paper really helps, because those pieces are really, really small, and folding a heavy paper over the edges would be difficult.

Here you see the box with only one side and the bottom attached. The upper frame is elevated from the back of the box using two adhesive foam squares to raise the frame. The moon was attached with one foam square.

A hanger for the back, and a photo of how the top star is adhered. Because that star is actually a bead, there's a hole through the middle. I adhered a long head pin to the back of the wooden piece, and bent it up and over. I dropped the star down onto the pin, and put a little dab of glue on the two points of the star that sit on the block. Now it's nice and secure.

Keep reaching for the stars. For a complete list of supplies, click here!

 

Mermaid Garden

We're having some fun with mermaid paper dolls over at Alpha Stamps this month! There are all kinds of fishy things to play with: from articulated chipboard mermaids, to a collage sheet of heads that perfectly fit those dolls, to sparkly sequined seashells. I made a fancy little mermaid and decided to create an undersea garden in which she could live. Here's an extra large photo of her home. I'll break some of the details down in smaller photos below. Doesn't that blue scalloped at the bottom of the shrine look 3D? It's actually an image from the mermaid head collage sheet!

There's a lot going on in this garden: whispy fronds of seaweed, bright red corral, crashing waves, and a sassy mermaid who has crowned herself with sparkly seashells. The paper doll mermaid is supported in the middle of the shrine with a bamboo skewer, which is inserted into a bead glued to the floor of the box. The skewer is painted the same blue that was used to paint her tail fins, and partially hidden behind some coral. A fish placed in front of the skewer also helps to hide it. To stabilize the figure, the elbow of her raised hand is attached to the side of the box with a little dab of white glue.

The back of the box features a scene from the Sea Green Mermaids collage sheet. I couldn't resist adding a few more swimming fish, which are attached with dimensional foam glue dots to give the scene some depth. A rusty bottlecap and two fancy fish decorate the top portion of the shrine. To pull a little more red up to that area, a Copic marker was used to give those fish red eyes.

The Arched Shrine shadowbox is nice and deep; you can see in this photo how I curled and inserted the two sets of waves. They almost stayed in place by themselves, but just to be sure, I ran a small bead of white glue along the bottom edge of each of them. You can see how busy that right side is; the better to hide that stick! Isn't the mermaid's pearl necklace lovely? Those pearls serve to hide the edge of her paper neck where it meets her body.

Here's the back. I kept it simple.

And one more photo for the road. I hope you enjoyed the Mermaid's Garden. For a list of supplies, click here.

Little Garden Book

I enjoyed using the Alpha Stamps Hidden Drawer Book Box in my The Little Book of Men
project so much that I asked Leslie (Queen of AS) if I could have another one just for fun.  I got a brightly colored paper pack and was inspired to do a Spring Garden theme. An image from the Women and Flowers collage sheet was the perfect size and had all the right colors for the cover of the book.

I love how this "woodgrained" paper looks almost like book pages. Here's the spine and top of the book:

The Little Book of Perfect Men held ATC cards, but this book has a secret that's a bit more fun: a tiny garden and a tiny gardener, plus a pretty songbird and a sweet little bunny.

I used some Leafy Green Underbrush for a grassy lawn, and a stick from my yard for a tree. Some tiny leaves from some Miniature Coiled Leaf Stems were glued onto the branch with a little dab of hot glue. The bunting and the birdhouse were cut from the paper that was featured on the sides of the secret drawer, and the pennants in the bunting were attached to the back with dimensional glue dots to give them some depth.

I thought this would be a great playset, so the rabbit and the peg doll are removable.

Now you can take a little garden with you wherever you go! For a complete list of supplies, click here.

Fun Time, a Framed Shadowbox

This month at Alpha Stamps, we were encouraged to do some art representing our passion, our craft room, or something we collected. I'm not much of a collector, but I do love toys, especially vintage toys. When I mentioned that to Leslie (Queen of Alpha Stamps), she said she would make a collage sheet with some of my favorite toys on it if I'd supply her with photos. Heck yeah! Bonus, she ended up making two collage sheets: one, some general toys, and two: circus themed toys. She even added a few fun toys that I now wish I owned, like the Happy Hooligan tin toy, which you can see in oval frame in the upper right corner of the photo below. Here's what I made with those collage sheets, plus some fun dollhouse sized frames and a wooden crate. I like to think the little boy below is visiting a toy museum, filled with toys I love. These toys are so fun, they are practically bursting out of their frames!

The small frame shadowbox is just deep enough host a few real toys in front of the wall of art.

Here's the back of the Fun Time museum. With the shadowbox alone, the frame will stand on its own, but it will lean a bit. I wanted this piece to sit flat, so I added a wooden block to prop it up. Works like a charm!

I liked the way the shadowbox fit exactly inside frame if you decide not to forego using the glass. Included in the kit is an extra piece of cardboard that the tabs on the sides of the box fit into. That's great to use if you want to use the glass on your work, but I chose to not use it in this piece. I used an exacto knife to cut off the tabs on the front of the box so it fit more snugly. It would have been better if I removed those tabs before I had partially glued the box, but hey, live and learn.

Here's a closeup of the inside of the shadowbox so you can see the toys better. The black plastic alien and the rubber duck are tiny, and just fit into the miniature fruit crate. The dog is an old Cracker Jack toy, and the train came from Alpha Stamps. The toy metal phone in the bottom frame is one of my favorite toys. It sits on the table next to my sofa, so I can make and receive important imaginary calls.

I hope you enjoyed the Fun Time museum. For a complete list of supplies, click here.