Iris and I made this Stick Family box together as part of her “Cool Time” way back when she was in Year 1 (she’s in Year 4 now), my apologies as I forget the theme of project it was so long ago.
However, it was getting a little tired round the edges and in danger of getting “hurt”, as it is quite bulky and hadn’t really found a permanent home in the house ………. so, with a some trepidation I offered to reframe it.
I bought a 30 x 30cm shadow box frame from Hobbycraft (£12) and armed myself with my faithful glue gun, as I knew I would need a quick but strong fix for all the awkward, uneven angles of the twigs.
I was really anxious about disassembling the original box but it wasn’t too bad. I wanted to keep it’s integrity, so kept the background colours the same, taking a large sheet of Kraft card, trimming it down to size and then drawing a border round it (using the mount provided) to ensure the family etc. stayed within the mount area. Sadly, however, a few of the background twigs and silk leaves in the front didn’t survive the process.
I did manage to save a little of the moss, along with a few acorns, acorn cups, alder cones and silk leaves and arranged them as best I could along the bottom, again within the mount. At this stage I thought I was done ………..
…… but then, in amongst the “rubbish” I found the sign, the most important part of the whole scene, doh, with little Iris’s handwritten title, what am I like?
With said sign and felt holly leaves and berries finally in place , I was really was ready to put it all in the frame …………
It’s beautiful, I think I have managed to save its character and innocence, but to be honest, I’m a bit loathe to hand it back …… but hey ho ………. it belongs with it’s maker and her lovely, lovely family.
