Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Autumn Matchbox Tutorial

Hi and welcome! I have really enjoyed autumn this year. The weather has been beautiful with sunny days and almost no rain at all. Beauty wherever you look, although the leaves have now fallen and we are waiting for the first snow. Today, I have an autumn matchbox tutorial to share, using some new products by Sizzix

Layers of ink - Autumn Matchbox Tutorial by Anna-Karin
The matchbox was made with the new Matchbox Box Thinlits Plus set, and it measures 3.6 x2.5 in. To create the leaves and branches, I used a wonderful new surface called Paper Leather Sheets. It is made from a latex saturated flat base to simulate the look and feel of real leather and feels great to the touch. It is very durable and takes ink beautifully and has a really nice malleable texture. I love to try out new surfaces, and I'll be using the leather sheets a lot in the future, especially the white ones

Start by die cutting the two pieces that make up the matchbox, from watercolour paper or another sturdy paper. Use this sandwich: Big Shot Plus Platform, Adapter A, Cutting Pad, die facing up, paper, second Cutting Pad.

Here you can see the pieces for the drawer (to the right) and the box (to the left). The set also contains a bunch of other dies that can be used to decorate and dress up the box, as well as for other projects. There are nine dies in total.

Die cut one of the patterned rectangles from the matchbox set - there are three different patterns. I die cut it from brown leather paper.

I also die cut lots of leaves with Tim Holtz Fall Foliage set. All of them were die cut from white leather paper, except for the branches which were die cut from brown leather paper.

I also die cut a Tattered Pinecone and some Tiny Tattered Florals shapes. It is a good idea to use the Sizzix Precision Base Plate with the latter, since they are so detailed.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet. I used Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Fired Brick, Wilted Violet and Peeled Paint. Dip the leaves into the ink. The leather papers take ink beautifully and can handle a lot of treatment.

Here are some of my finished leaves and flowers. They turned out exactly as I was hoping they would. The branches were inked with Ground Espresso.

When dry, I stamped the flowers and leaves with a script stamp. This script stamp comes from a Halloween set, but it works for anything. It is a favourite of mine.

Smear Antique Linen, Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap on a craft sheet, mist with water and press the box papers into the ink. As you can see here, the die both cuts and scores the paper, which makes it easy to assemble the boxes.

Stamp a sentiment one each side and ink the edges. Fold up the drawer.

Use a strong adhesive to assemble the box. Glue the patterned piece on top and then layer on leaves, flowers and finally, branches.

I tied a button to the drawer, both functional and pretty at the same time.

Layers of ink - Autumn Matchbox Tutorial by Anna-Karin
The leather paper worked wonderfully for the flowers and it has a really nice feel to it. I am not sure how to describe it, a bit like very thick coffee filters, or thick, soft and malleable watercolour paper.

I coloured the flowers on both sides, but left a few small areas of white, as highlights. The larger rose, is made from the Tattered Pinecone die, the other flowers from the Tiny Tattered Florals set. To see how to assemble the Tiny Tattered Florals, check out this video of mine.

I used two Chit Chat stickers as my sentiment.

Layers of ink-Tiny Tattered Florals
At the top corner, I placed the two smaller roses.

Layers of ink - Autumn Matchbox Tutorial by Anna-Karin
This could be used for a small gift, such as jewellery, or maybe for a gift card, or some sweets.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:




14 comments:

  1. Love,the sound of those leather sheets. Gorgeous matchbox, love he die cut piece behind the wonderful autumnal foliage. Gorgeous . Tracy x

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    1. Thank you Tracy! I am sure you would like the leather sheets. :)

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  2. i absolutely love your project and i have been having fun with those leather sheets too!! aren't they fabulous!!!

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    1. Thank you so much Diana! The leather sheets are fabulous, I was real happy to start playing with them.

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  3. Beautiful ..love the warm tones and vintage look !

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  4. Beautiful box! I love all the colors, textures and design.

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  5. What a wonderful box! I love all of the layers and textures. The leather paper sounds like fun - I'll have to try it.
    Do you spritz your paper before putting it in the ink? If so, do you when using water color paper as well as leather paper? Thanks!

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    1. Thank you so much Di! I sometimes spritz the paper with water first, but when using Distress Ink on my craft sheet, as I did here, I usually just mist the ink with water and leave the paper dry. It works both ways, the more water, the lighter the colour of the ink. The leather paper is quite absorbent, so you might need a little more water/ink than for a lot of other papers.

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  6. I just love every detail here and am so thankful that you shared the tip on using paper leather - coolness! Can't wait to get me some! :) Hugs, Autumn

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  7. Super gorgeous Anna- Karin! Your foliage is rich with colour!

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  8. Just stunning! Looks like fall personified. I wonder if you might mention when you use sizzix Plus dies if any part of them will fit regular Sizzix machines? I don't have Sizzix Plus machine.

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    1. Thanks so much Marci! Good question, I will remember mentioning this in posts. None of the Plus Embossing Folders work in a Big Shot, but some of the dies will. In the Matchbox set, some of the dies will go through a Big Shot, but the one used to make the drawer is a little too wide. You could also use Tim Holtz Matchbox die, but the box would be a little smaller.

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  9. Oh my... truly breathtakingly lovely Anna-Karin. My favorite colors through and through... just total yumminess for me in every way. Seems like this took a lot of patience.... it was definitely worth the efforts - its just stunning. Wow - have to go feast my eyes again... in fact - I think I will pin it too!!!! LOVE!!! j.

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment! Happy Crafting!