Matchbox Assemblage

...teeny tiny creation...

   My arty friend Sandy of Artfullymade4u.blogspot.com has lured me in, to try out matchbox assemblage. I have been check'in these things out on Pinterest for some time now. They are crazy cool and just the right size for collecting. However, if you have fumbling fingers like me, it can be REALLY challenging! I stuck to it, though, so here are two that I have done...

I start off with a piece of scrap paper...(I used Bristol on accident...was suppose to be watercolor paper.) 

I cut the paper so that it's width could fit in the box. I shoved one end snugly in the box and creased the paper, with my finger at each end...going back in forth until all I was left with, was the little tab. It just worked out! I didn't measure this scrap...but I thought, "Great it's a pull tab."

So now, on to the sketch! The sketch as you can see below is of things in the sea. There are some fish, a crab and some sand dollars....

In the first pic of the cluster, I started with a pencil sketch. Next, I went over all my lines with a Micron. Then some color from Inktense watercolor pencils. I couldn't use too much water, because it's Bristol paper, so I went really gently with a brush not loaded with too much water. Bristol will pill with too much water or wet mediums.

At the other end of the strip, I did some sand dollars. I scribbled some Inktense watercolor pencils on a separate piece of paper and filled in around the sand dollars. Some of the color I used as shadows as well. There are about three different blues that I used in that spot. To finish it off, I added some water droplets and some stipples of black. (Look at my older posts I have a tut on water droplets.) I stamped a little flower with my sig too...:)

Now let's see the B-side...

I took some cheap  yellow Acrylic paint and dropped some at the beginning of the strip and smear it across it's length with a junk mail card. Next, while the first layer is still wet, I put some drops of orange and more yellow....smeared that across as well. I liked the way the first swipe turned out, so I let it dry that way...

Waiting for paint to dry is agonizing! 

Okay, background is dry...going in with some more paint! First I took one of those gumball egg containers and dipped it in to some green paint. Did a few cirlces...un-neat as usual! Then I took one of my home made, junk mail stencils and did some wonky circles. 

 I wanted the circles to pop a little, so with my finger, I painted some off white highlights. With some Inktense scribbled on another paper, I shadowed the spots as well....Then double BAM! Date stamper and my personal stamp. :)

It's almost done! I took some paper that I have received from a friend and wrapped it around the box. I used Tombow glue to keep it secure. (...and nope not a clue what the paper says!) Next, I used a gold metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen to edge the box. At this point I wasn't sure what to do....I remembered that I had some shells with holes that can be threaded. So, I used one of those. For the life of me, I couldn't get a thread to go through it! That's when I came across some wire....I wrapped that around the box a couple of times to keep the shell in place. Finally, I used blue Distress Ink to age the piece.

Here is the finished piece!