3 -D Matchbox Valentine Diorama's

I've said it before, I love to make things with little matchboxes, so it should be no surprise I am still coming up with things to do with them!

I was just sort of making this little diorama for myself for fun, when my son saw it. He really surprised me how much he loved it! So I thought, I could hide it away and give it to him for Valentines Day.

 I had to make a second one for my daughter too!

My daughter is quite the little writer these days, so she got a little wolf typing away! 

Typing on a Robin's Egg Blue vintage typewriter of course! 

Here is how easy this was to make;

I just used a regular old small matchbox.  Instead of elaborate decorating I simply covered everything with a black sharpie marker in one coat. Very smelly, but provided quick and easy results!

I traced the background for size, and did a simple illustration in pencil, added color with watercolors,and went back over the pencils lines with black pen so they stood out. 

I used regular white glue to attach to the back.

To create a 3-D effect, I made 2 more layers, same technique, paper-pencil-watercolor-pen. I cut the image out, but left a tab to attach to the inside of the box, and colored over the tab with black sharpie so it does not show.

The top layer needs it's tab to be the thickness of the inside of the box, so that it stands on top. The tab of the layer below should be half the thickness, so it rests in the middle.

Fold all the layers inside the box, and your little diorama is ready for someone to love!

I kept it simple for the covers (as you can see above) and just glued another drawn image to the front.

Day 6 -Tiny holiday records

We will be featuring tiny holiday projects every day until Christmas! This is the December 6 project. Check back tomorrow for another adorable idea.

One of the first things I do in December is get out all of our Christmas records so we can get into the holiday spirit with some of the Oldies. Why not print out and assemble some tiny dollhouse albums for your little holiday revelers?

For a turntable you can visit this site and learn how to make an awesome one. it very cleverly uses the back of a pin as a needle. It is also way too big for our house so you may want to modify it.

You can find our record templates at the Google Docs site. To assemble the record cover print out the templates. Cut and fold. Glue with the tabs inside.
We made our records out of a black vinyl folder, using a one-inch circle punch. Make a tiny hole in the center, add on a small circle label and you are all set. I include some blank records with the template so you can make your own. Simply find album art you want and shrink it down so that it fits in the box. Or draw your own covers!