My son loves to create with match boxes. Their size is comfortable for little hands. One of these little buildings can be created quickly, a whole village created in an afternoon. It’s also a great group project, each person contributing a little building of their own.
I create regularly with children and know how innovative and imaginative they can be. Use this tutorial as a guideline. Be sure to give little helpers assistance but let them do what they do best - create! If you’re a bit of a fuss pot (like me!) offer up items from one collection and everything will match fine and dandy.
Here is the supply list:
**Also useful for this project:
12 Days of Christmas Set
12 Days of Christmas Chipboard Die-cuts 1,
12 Days of Christmas Chipboard Die-cuts 2
12 Days of Christmas Set
12 Days of Christmas Chipboard Die-cuts 1,
12 Days of Christmas Chipboard Die-cuts 2
Standard size matchboxes (without matches!)
Tacky Glue
Scor Tape
Black ink marker/pen
Ink pad
1. Gather all of your materials! Here I’m using paper, tags, stickers and banners from the Twelve Days of Christmas collection.
2.
Choose the back ground colour of your building and cut a strip of paper
the same height as your matchbox (mine was 2.1”) then wrap the paper
around the outside sleeve of the matchbox and affix it into place. It’s a
good idea to make the paper wider for younger children, to give them
some wiggle room, then trim away the excess.
3. Select a piece from the bunting sheet for the door, ink the edges if
you like, then push a small brad through to create a door knob. I
sketched three small windows and cut them out, as well as three small
rectangles for window sills. **If you are working with very small
children you might consider preparing windows ahead of time so that they
can focus on assembly.
4.
Glue the door and windows into place. I like to ink all of the edges. I
think it makes the pieces ‘pop’ and adds to the sketchy charm of the
pieces.
5. Add finishing touches like Dresden trims and stickers.
For
variation stack boxes together, creating fatter buildings with bundles
of two or more boxes. One lonely building isn’t very impressive so make a
whole holiday village perfect for imaginative holiday play or hiding
little sweets and charms inside.
Hop over to the Graphic 45 blog for more photos of this project and LOADS of other beautiful papery eye-candy.
