WHAT'S ON THE WORKTABLE...

I am creatively inspired by fabric and paper of the vintage variety as well as nature. These are almost always my go to supplies. In the case of the three handmade shoes shown above, each element is represented. I have had in mind for quite some time to create special boxes with a mixture of vintage and new supplies to complete these pieces of art.
This week the worktable has been littered with handmade shoes in need of boxes.

I thought that I could purchase some ready made Paper Mache boxes and then just decorate them. I could not find any in the right sizes for the larger shoes, they were either too small or too large so I had to resort to making them from scratch. You might remember some of these shoes from past posts, they have been waiting ever so long for boxes!
I will try not to bore you to death with older art pieces but I am determined to finish up some things before I move on to something new and I have several partially finished projects nagging at me. I so want to turn over a new leaf and start seeing things to completion before jumping into the next thing. Yesterday was really frustrating for me to work on just the one box because there was so much drying time in between but I stuck to it and just need to finish the embellishment on the top of the box now that it has dried over night.

One thing I can tell you for sure, I will NOT be quitting my day job to become a shoe box maker! Measuring, cutting, fitting, assembling, and leaving enough room to add stability to my flimsy structure and then layer on the pretty parts was not an easy feat. The lids were tricky. I have two down and one more to go. Thank goodness I was able to find ready made boxes for the smaller shoes!

This past weekend I made a new Pixie Shoe using a lot of dried naturals that I collected and pressed last spring and summer...Then I assembled the box, I just loved this vintage photo of a darling little girl named Patsy Ruth age 2 years. I hand tinted the black and white photo to use as the box lid logo...I spent a good portion of my day yesterday making a box for the dancing slipper from my last post...I wanted to make the lid have a recessed scene inside. I chose a ballet dancer twirling on her toes in muslin rosettes and vintage millinery flowers...I love this vintage flocked wallpaper on the lid, I only have a little bit of this left so I use it sparingly...Today I plan on working on a box for the little brown paper toddler shoe and then move on to the ready made boxes for some baby shoes...I hope you will return next week to see the finished products because it is time for a give away! Somehow it slipped right past me that I had past 500 posts and then I noticed that it had also slipped past me that I have over 500 friends following along on my creative journey. I think that calls for a celebration!

I will post the sign up post next Friday and in case you are wondering, two of the little baby shoes and their boxes will be prizes, plus, I am adding three more items so there will be five winners in honor of my 500+ posts and 500+ friends. Thank you so very much for all the support and encouragement it truly means the world to me.

I am linking up with Debra of Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday.
I hope your weekend is a wonderful one!

P.S. Thank you so much for all the thoughtful prayers and well wishes, I am fully recovered, back up, and running.