In progress

A few more miniature portraits in progress! I'm not completely satisfied with all of them, I need to tweak them a bit before I move on to making the entire matchbox. They are Simone de Beauvoir and Edith Piaf, I;m happy with the first but even though I love how Piaf looks my sister confused her for Lucille Ball... So I'm thinking of maybe doing a portrait where her hair is longer? The other two are Agatha Christie and Louise Brooks, I like Brooks but I need to work on her lips a bit and unfortunately I'm not completely happy with Christie so I'll need to work on it more.

Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

PS Matchbox

Today I'm making tiny little envelopes to fill with love notes! They are part of the matchbox diorama in the pics above. All our matchboxes are handmade from scratch, they are hand cut, hand folded and hand painted making them more unique :-)

This matchbox is painted to look like a vintage envelope and on the inside there is an envelope with a little piece of paper with the phrase "I love you". I think it's a pretty cute way to send someone your love!
You can find this one, along with all our matchbox designs in our Etsy shop!

Wishing you a lovely weekend,
Aleka

Linked to StrawberryButterscotch
OurMiniFamily 

The whales

Hi!
A bit of experimenting with clay and these little cuties happened! These three clay whales are a sort of prototype for me as I'm trying things out with their coloring, I find I prefer the light wash of color that brings out the sanded surface to the more uniform coloring. And now I need to figure out how to make their shape more consistent, even though this way each one is unique :-)
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Linked to Wow Me Wednesday 

Matchbox ladies

Hi!
I've had this idea in my head for a while, a sort of collection of matchboxes with a specific theme. I thought of various ideas and there were a couple that seemed more interesting and challenging to me. So here is the one that I picked: I'm making matchboxes with portraits of important women in history. Women that have left their mark in various fields through the years, from science to arts these women have one thing in common: their work is celebrated by all today :-)
Here are four matchboxes I've already made, Jane Austen, Amelia Earhart, Billie Holiday and Marie Curie. I'm hoping to make more and grow this collection!
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

A parliament of owls

Hi there!
I wanted to call these guys a gang but apparently a group of owls is called a parliament. Well this parliament is busy scheming plans on world domination for the googly eyed owls. You can find them in the shop, as they are made with no mold each one is a bit different but still adorable and cute :-)
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Matchbox cards in the making

 

Probably my favorite matchbox card, this literal version of being in love. It's so much fun cutting and painting tiny hearts, my workspace looks like a heart factory!
And now you can get a personalized version as well, with your initials on the little banner!
Have a lovely weekend :-)
Aleka

The making of bees

Every matchbox I make goes through a lot of stages, versions that work and (many) others that fail, until I am happy with the result. The bee mine matchbox is no different. I played around with the bee shapes and sizes before I picked one that I liked. And for the cover I played around with the lettering and the colors. I made two versions, the one in the photo above is nearest to the actual cover, it's the same font but in the final version but the little beehives are colorful as I felt that the front was too plain :-)
When I was finally satisfied with everything I photographed the "Bee Mine" matchbox and listed it in the shop!
Aleka

Working with paper

Now I understand the impact of Valentine's day to commerce. I think I made around 70 paper hearts and matchboxes in the months of January and early February. I do enjoy making matchboxes so I'm working on a couple of new ideas :-)

Hope you have a lovely day,
Aleka

Paper and clay

Working on googly eyed owls from clay, I want to figure out some details before I can turn them into a listing. Also working on a new matchbox, soon to be in the shop, I have to admit it's turning out to be one of my favorites :-)
Enjoy your weekend,
Aleka

Work in progress

A small break turned out into a bigger one but that's life I guess :-)
The steps of making my All You Need matchboxes in green, now they are traveling to meet their new owner!

Hope you are having a lovely week,
Aleka

Decisions

After spending the weekend and the beginning of this week ill, I started feeling better and got a bit creative. The love matchboxes are finished, one of them is in the shop the other will follow soon! And I have this unfinished ice cream cone, can't decide between the two backgrounds: big polka dots or small polka dots? Decisions, decisions...

Hope you are having a lovely weekend,
Aleka

More matchboxes

My latest matchboxes: a summery one and a very literal one :-)
And a cute giveaway on facebook from SockoolCreatures!
Wishing you a lovely weekend,
Aleka

Matchboxes

All the matchboxes I've made so far :-)
Some are already in the shop, the rest I have to photograph and add to the section.

Hope you had a great weekend!
Aleka

Work in progress

I've been working on new paper matchbox dioramas, very summery aren't they?

A lovely giveaway right here!
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Paper craft

You know when you have an idea in your head and you must make it happen? I've been working on tiny matchbox surprises, soon they'll be in the shop :-)

Hope you had a great week!! Don't miss out on the music celebrations this weekend.
xoxo
Aleka