As part of a group of friends that practice textile art, we came up with the idea of exchanging decorated matchboxes for Christmas. We could use any size of matchbox, any technique to decorate it and put anything inside.
I did some internet research and came up with the idea of a scene inside a large matchbox containing a sleeping fox brooch. I came up with the sleeping fox idea after seeing something similar in a library book with some simple felt decorations.
I started with an oval of orange felt for the background and then stitched the body, tail and face elements on top using blanket stitch. Some definition on the body and features of the face were embroidered on top and a pin clasp stitched onto the back.
I then fitted the fox inside a burrow in the bottom of the matchbox tray using a crumpled brown paper bag for the burrow, distressed with brown rub-on wax. Note that I lined the inside of the matchbox with plain white paper first.
Next I cut a tree trunk out of plain white card, making sure there were tabs to stick it to the inside of the matchbox and that there was enough space to get the fox out of his burrow. This took a bit of trial and error to get right.
Before I stuck the tree in place I decorated the inside of the matchbox with Inktense pencils, a metallic gel pen for the moon and then a black fineliner for the fine details of distant trees and foliage etc. Notice that the decoration comes all the way up the sides.
Then I could add in the tree trunk and add shading onto it to make it more realistic. It was very fiddly to stick all the small tabs in place and hold them until they were dry!
Finally I covered the outer sleeve with some fabric I had printed from garden foliage in a previous Stitch Club workshop, which I thought would add to the slightly magical feel of the whole scene. The friend I sent it to was very delighted with it.
