UKS Matchbox Shrine Swap...

I think one of the projects I have had most fun with recently was this one... take a matchbox (any size) and decorate it to turn it into a shrine... the thread on UKScrappers got rapidly out of hand (alongside the thread for the screen swap which I'll come to later)...

I hadn't really had any bright ideas for what to do, I had been kicking a few thoughts around but nothing was floating my boat, when the thread plunged headlong into the madness that concerned tortoises hibernating in Hannah's fridge... I kid you not, she said it was the perfect temperature for them and that altho it seemed a bit weird it worked... well that was it... the thread disintergrated into total mayhem and general depravity and the most brilliant of ideas began to skulk across my mind...

I'd been paired up with Rebecca (our hostess) whether by luck or judgement I'll never know... but as she seemed most tickled by the whole tortoise concept (altho by that stage we'd mentally tucked them into coolboxes I think!) it became obvious what I had to do - turn a cooks matchbox into a wooden crate and stick a toy tortoise inside it... and pray that French Customs can take a joke and not destroy it en route...

So... a wooden crate needs thin balsa wood sheeting to cover the top and sides with thin strips to represent the batoning... balsa wood supports inside for a framework, grungepaper strap and a magnetic closure and a coat of stain...

Not forgetting the jump-ring chains to hold the lid open - didn't have any ready-made chain so had to fiddle around with a couple of pairs of tiny-nosed pliers and make my own lengths of chain!

Give it all a coat of brown paint inside to hide the wobbly edges and then fill with chopped up beige raffia, which looks a lot like straw... and nestle your toy tortoise inside...

Rebecca loved it!