Victorian Match Boxes (DIY)

When my friend Molly and her husband moved into his Grandmother's house to help care for her, I was beyond jealous.

 Their Grandma has one of those incredible old houses that you only see in movies with room after room brimming full of dusty old trinkets and treasure. The house was built by his Great Grandfather, and harbors generations of beautiful things: antique Ouija boards, ancient books, old dolls and perfume bottles, vintage buttons and jewelry, records,... the list goes on.  A few weeks ago, Molly came over and casually dropped a bag on the table saying, "Grandma said you can have this stuff for art projects."  I grabbed the bag and out tumbled delicate lace clad antique dolls, unopened vintage greeting cards, beads, and ribbon.  I couldn't believe my eyes!  After much deliberation, I bought a few boxes of matches from the dollar store and set to work making Victorian style match boxes with the cards and ribbon.  They are a quick project, a beautiful gift to give, and can be used to stash almost anything once the matches are gone.

You will need:

match boxes

vintage greeting cards or pretty paper

paper doilies

ribbon

glue stick

hot glue gun

Place the match box over one of the images on the card and trace it.  

Cut out the image and glue it to the box.  Be sure to press down the edges of the image or they won't want to stick.

Repeat with another image on the other side of the box.

Next, trace the corner of your match box on the doily and cut it out.

Glue it to the corner of the box.  I wasn't able to keep my doily on the box with the glue stick, so I used a few dabs of hot glue.  Once the doily is in place, trim the excess paper.


Wrap the little box up with a peice of pretty ribbon and you're finished!

Beautiful!  

These sweet little match boxes have so many potential uses:  

*They could be handed out as wedding favors

*stuffed into stockings at Christmas

*given out for Valentine's Day instead of cards

*wrapped up with a pretty candle as a house warming gift.

This tutorial was featured on totallytutorials.blogspot.com!