craft corner

Here is the Christmas present I made my sister Judy... my first cigar box purse. I decoupaged the sides with tissue paper, then decorated them. Both sides are decorated with vintage postcards, glass marble words, vintage pearl buttons, and seed beads. Both sides also have ivory and gold trim around the edges- this helped to hide the raw edges of the tissue paper. The purple side also has two vintage playing cards, as well as a small stamped/heat embossed bird. The pink side has two stamped, embossed, and colored butterflies that match the postcard. The closure is a stretchy hair elastic (!) that fits around a wooden bead thing I found at the craft store. The handle is glass beads bought at a local bead store- they are from India and China, I think. It took me more than two hours to find beads that I liked, that also fit onto the handle! The inside is lined with fabric; the lid is also decoupaged tissue paper with a vintage postcard cutout and a couple roses from scrapbooking paper. It was a project that got made in stages; first I gessoed, then painted the entire box, then I started gluing on the tissue paper. (mental note- tissue paper isn't the best thing to use for decoupage!) Then I designed the arrangement, and glued on the decorations in short sessions, waiting for the glue to dry inbetween. I used decoupage glue as well as E6000 adhesive (I hope the glue smell is finally gone!) to hold everything on... then, at the end, I coated the painted surfaces with water-based varnish. I may try another one sometime... if not a purse, then a decorated keepsake box or a small shrine. There is a really nice cigar store that Tom frequents (The Cigar Warehouse- there's one in Phoenix, and one in Scottsdale)... the whole store is a humidor- it smells great when you walk into it! They sell empty boxes for $1-$2, and some of them are pretty neat shapes. I sure won't work on as short of a deadline again, though!