Fairy keepsake matchbox - a mini adventure

Hello everyone,

A while back I happened upon a post by Pixie Hill where she did a tutorial on how to make altered keepsake boxes out of matchboxes. I was enthralled and decided to give it a go.

I decided to keep to be inspired by Pixie Hill and wondered what a fairy would keep in her keepsake box. Here is the result. This is all a little matchbox, so a little fiddly, but I loved the challenge.

 

A fairy's keepsake box

I'll give you a little breakdown on how I made everything.

Teeny tiny sewing caddy

 I thought that a sewing caddy would be just perfect for this project.


The basket is a jewellery making titbit, the threads are made from cutting up a matchstick and winding sewing thread aroud them, the ball is embroidery thread and the pins are little cut up jewellery-making connectors.

Fairy pets captured in a tiny jar

 Off course fairies will have pets. Here you can see a transparent butterfly and a rocklet.

The butterfly was made by stamping acetate with Stayz-on ink and fussy cutting it out, the rocklet is made from a tiny bead with craft gems as eyes. The moss at the bottom is miniatures grass.

Fairy journal - open

 

Fairy journal - closed

 Off course a fairy would keep a little notebook or journal.

I took a tiny bit of red cardstock, punched a mini tag out of it, distressed it and stuck on some alphabet lettering. This formed the cover. I made the pages out of distressed white pages roughly torn to the size of the journal. The binding is embroidery thread and some jewellery making titbits. The journal is held together by a stapler.

Tiny treasures for the matchbox

 Here are 3 out of the 4 treasures in the mailbox. I forgot to photograph the tiny necklace I made as well. Note to self - photograph at the end of the project and not midway where you can get distracted ;)

The empty matchbox

I lined the base with distressed music sheets and used think mounting card to make the compartments. Remember the moss in the pet bottle? I used some to line the matchbox to look like moss.

All the treasures neatly tucked into their spaces

All snug and ready to be discovered by my partner. Can you see the necklace pendant? It's a jewellery bit with a craft gem on it. The chain was made from the finest chain I had in my collection.

The finished matchbox

Here is the finished keepsake box. The drawer's outside is lined with travel themed washi tape. Can you see the little butterfly on the button?

The titbits on the lid include torn green texture paper, distressed scrap lace, distressed buttons, embroidery thread, craft gems, a scissor pendant and a tiny watch hand on the black button.

All packed up and ready for shipping

Opening up a treasure is half the fun, so I packed this up in a plastic container with some texture paper as the cushioning. Some washi tape and a watercolour butterfly adorned the lid.

Want to see what some of the other participants did for the swap? Here you go.

DuhBe did a steampunk themed box that was absolutely amazing. See her blog post here.
My partner sent me a Marie Antoinette themed box which I adore. See a pic here.

Hugs
Mar