Vintage Match Box Ornaments

I have been working on these little match box ornaments a little at a time while I was working on a few other projects. Just to clarify, these are made with real matchboxes--I have many match sticks left over, if anyone needs some!

To start I opened up the cover of each matchbox and unfolded into one flat rectangle.  I used Tim Holtz' Movers and Shapers dies to cut the postage stamp and bottle cap openings.  I used a Stampin' Up punch for the oval.  

Next I gave both the covers and the drawers of the match boxes a coat of gesso. Once dry I painted the oval cover entirely with Brushed Pewter Distress Paint and just the front of the postage stamp cover with Tarnished Brass DP.  Allowed both to dry.  

The bottle cap cover front only was inked with Vintage Photo.  I gave the front a coat of Multi Medium and a dusting of sparkly glitter and Rock Candy Distress Glitter medly.

I applied Platinum Stickles to the front  of postage stamp cover and set that aside to dry.

  I heat embossed the entire cover of the oval with Rangers Embossing Tinsel.  

I photocopied vintage music that seemed to be sized just right for these tiny ornaments, distressed it with Distress ink and glued this onto the 3 sides of the 2 remaining box covers and both ends of each drawer.

I chose 3 bird themed Christmas images from my stash of ephemera.  The Santa with bluebird and the 3 birds with a holiday bell came from a collage sheet I purchased at 32 Degrees North a few years ago, but I don't know who the maker is.  The four finches with holly came from an ATC Collection paper pad from Memories in the Making.  I cut a copy of each and glued it into the drawer bottom. From additional copies, I fussy cut the birds, sentiments, and holly for the oval and bottle cap boxes and layered them in with layers of dimensional foam adhesive.  The Santa with bluebird was a single image which I brought to the front of the drawer with a couple of layers of foam adhesive.  

I punched holes in the tops and bottoms of each drawer and in two of the tops I used an Idea-ology thingy to hold an ornament hook. and in the third I used a piece of twine to hang my hook on. (I just thought it was more fitting for this one:))  I glued on little color coordinated jingle bells on each drawer bottom inserting the raised loop at the top of the bell into the hole for extra hold. I covered the prongs of the brads with tissue tape on the inside of the drawer to give it a more finished look.

To finish, I added the fussy cut holly and Christmas Greeting to the front of two of my boxes.

These will be sweet little additions to my Christmas tree and will look extra sparkly with lights around them...that is, if I ever get the lights on the tree!  I was influenced by Tim Holtz' vintage colors, text, images, glitters and Configuration boxes in the making of these treasures, although very few Tim Holtz products were used.  

I hope you enjoyed sharing my little birdie match boxes with me!  Thank you for all your sweet comments--they mean so much to me, and inspire me to try different things to keep you coming back to see what's new!

I would like to enter my ornaments into the following challenges:

Frilly and Funkie "A Vintage Holiday"

Country View Challenges December's Festive Challenge "Nostalgic Holidays"

A Vintage Journey #20 "Birds of a Feather"

Craft Hoarders Anonymous #21 "Celebrate the Season"

Inspiration Journal "Sing, Sing It Loud!" This time you won't have to listen to the birds singing to know my project fits into the theme, you can see the sheet music and the jingle bells!

Just Us Girls #270 Word Week "Sparkle" I think I've got some sparkle going on here!  This is my first time entering this fun challenge.

The Mirror Cracked #4 Recycle/Upcycle or a Christmas Gift