Matchmakers

My husband belongs to a wonderful group called the Santa Rosa East Rotary Club.  The people in this club are all truly wonderful and loving and we have become true friends over the years.  A few months back, one of the ladies, Phyllis, thought it would be a lot of fun to put together a group to play Bunco once a month and alternate around to different houses.  Last night was our Bunco at Ken and Judy's house, and I wanted to take some kind of a little hostess gift.  I decided it might be kind of fun to decorate a box of matches with some pretty paper, etc., so here is how my project turned out.

Matchmakers

I purchased an ordinary box of matches at the hardware store thinking that it would be fun project.  I cut polka dot paper (turquoise blue, green, orange, purple and red dots) the exact size of the matchbox top and then attached it using multiple strips of "Miracle Tape."  For the bottom, I cut a coordinating piece of paper (green with white stripes) and attached it the same way.  I then cut about a 1/2" strip of paper out of the green and white striped paper and then used my fancy scissors to trim the edges.  I chalked the edges of the strip with brown chalk and then mounted it onto the box using tape.  Next I had some lavendar rick rack that I glued to the top of the green strip.  Using a regular piece of sandpaper, I sanded the edges of the top and bottom of my box and then chalked the edges with brown.  For the top outside edges I glued some green fancy rick rack, which I think gives it a nice finished look.  I added some cute little flower stickers that look like they must be buds for some kind of a fruit.  I wanted to personalize the matchbox, so I cut a "C" out of lightweight cardstock and then covered it with a lavendar gingham paper and finally, I chalked the edges in lavendar.  The last thing was to stamp my personalized stamp onto the back, an artist should always remember to sign their work.