babbling and matchboxes!

i am home!!

wahoo! last night was lovely, sleeping in my own bed, with my kitties who were oh-so-happy to see me!

i went a little bit crazy thrift store shopping, and came home with an extra suitcase that was actually larger than the one i took full of clothes, and i left a box and two bags there for my dad to bring home the next time he drives out! i had it in my head that the weight limit was 44lbs per bag, and so i spent a bunch of time saturday night weighing the bags and transferring stuff from bag to bag to try to get them under the limit! the end result was 43lbs and 43.3lbs, and a very heavy carry on bag, and then i got to the airport and they told me the limit was 50lbs per bag! trust me, i took all the heavy shit out of my carryon and stashed it in the bags before they took them away! i actually had plenty of space between the two suitcases, but i found a lot of REALLY AWESOME old women's magazines and craft magazines, and they were heavy! i'm hoping to look into copyright stuff to see if i can scan and post any of them, cause they're fabulous.

but anyway! the shopping will be another post! hopefully i'll have a chance to take some pics when i get a chance to fully unpack.

while i was away, i received a ton of mail, and a ton of things that i sent were received! i don't expect to do much crafting this week, i'm trying to get settled and organized, i feel a bit out of sync. plus, i came home and decided that i needed to clean! i don't know why, but i'm all motivated. i thought it was due to the extreme messiness in my bedroom, but this morning i even cleaned out my car! (my brother borrowed it without permission while i was away, and left his garbage in it - a coke zero bottle and a cigarette pack. i'm allergic to aspartame, and there's no way in hell i'd be smoking belmonts, so it was pretty damn obvious that he'd driven the car!) i never clean out my car, hence the need to clean!

enough talking! pictures, right?

i was in the matchbox swap round 3 on craftster.org, and i chose to have 2 partners. what a fun swap! i love matchboxes, they're so much fun to play with (i never really grew out of the pyro stage!)


for the first partner, who likes pink and cute stuff -

the outside

i inked the scrapbooking paper before i applied it to the box, but you really can't tell in the picture, it just looks solid pink. it wasn't! plus, i made a little mask on the top, so that the area under the flowers was lighter. i glued on the flower petals and the little vintage owl bead with glossy accents, and then added the pink rhinestone and the blue glitter.

and the inside

again, you can't really see the multiple shades of pink! i inked the entire "drawer", then added paper wrapped all the way around front to back. i added a pink heart grommet on the front, and pulled the ribbon and fibers through it to make a handle. the little birdie in the centre was cut out of scrapbooking paper, using my new fiskars punch. (i love that shape! it's the shape of the mask on the top too)


for the second partner, who likes nature, secrets and old keys -

the outside

again i inked the paper a bit to tone it down, and then i clear embossed the letters S E C R E T on the top around where the key would be. i glued the old key on with glossy accents.

the inside

i inked the entire "drawer" with green stazOn, and then wrapped it front to back with a piece of inked scrapbooking paper.

the drawer pull

i used a lacing brad, or whatever those are called, and ran the ribbon and fibers through the little loop.

and both of them together, with the little cards i quickly made up to write notes on. they're old playing cards with an awesome image on the back, and i just cut a piece of paper smaller than the card for both, ran the pieces through my xyron (love that thing!), and slapped 'em on. i love how they matched the boxes, what a fluke!


so much fun! one of these days i'll get around to posting more things that i've made or plan to make out of matchboxes, they're so great.