My Premier Post

Well, here I go.  I have often thought of starting a blog, and day one of my winter break has offered me the opportunity to finally put my thought in motion. 

Today I am going to highlight a little shrine I have made for one of my swap pals.  Little does she know, but the recipient of this shrine is a true inspiration of mine.  She really likes fairy tales, so this was my chosen theme.  I can only hope she likes it. 

I have never made a shrine on this scale prior to this project, it is made from a 250 count matchbox as the base. 

 



The images used for the "door" of this shrine were found in a calendar.  I loved the image of the window and I thought this added some shape, by extending beyond the boundaries of the matchbox.  The keyhole was found in my stash, as was the vintage key I attached to the outside for movement.  Amazingly, the little transfer was also discovered while rummaging through some stuff.  I was so pleased that the perfect little decal presented itself at the perfect time!

Now, I know that there is no dragon in Rapunzel. However, I just could not pass up this perfect mirror image...so I took creative liberty and used it anyway under the guise that this is a "Fairy Tale Shrine."  I added a tiny red gem in his eye, and yet another touch of stickels  to accent his fire. 

The inside of the shrine is a small scene from Rapunzel.  The starting point of this whole project was the game piece from a Renaissance Chess Set.  I found it at a flea market some time ago and fell in love with the pieces.  This is the first project I have made with that find.  I added a bit of paint and wiped away to age the castle a bit.  I also distressed a bit with some inks. 

The ground is made from Crayola Modeling clay, paint and some stickles for texture.  Rapunzel's braid was made from yarn I dyed with some spray ink.  The trees in the back ground were charms I cut up and repurposed. 

I searched and searched for a Knight in Shining Armor (they are just so hard to find these days!)  Alas,I had to make my own.  I found a horse charm and a "lord a leaping" charm at my local bead shop that I altered to suit my needs. 

The sky is speckled with stickles stars and some natural paper, which is torn to give a bit of dimension.  A glittery moon is tucked in a corner. 

I could not leave out the back, and felt that an image of Rapunzel would be cute back there.  I happened upon a window made of foil that I had purchased a while back.  The picture used for our famous princess came from a great piece of collage cardstock. I simply took my little window and used it to find an image that would fit inside appropriately.  Again in the end, I was seeking something to add texture, so the felt vines achieved this desire.  I added the metal bar for interest as well. 



 

So there it is, my little creation made for one of my swapping pals. 

I learned a lot from this experiment.  The one thing I would do different next time is plan for a closure for the box.  I wish I had the foresight to see that this should have been done earlier in the project.  I did not want to mess up the door, so I tied a ribbon around it for shipping purposes and sent it off.