Shoebox: Chenille Figures, Note Cards and More

Included in the group of figures she sent to us was an army nurse complete with an army cot, a minister.

She also included a couple of Christmas ornaments with Santa himself, a young girl on a swing (yes, it really swings), an angel and a clown.

Mary Darling of Boonville, Calif., sent a nice note written on one of her hand-decorated note cards. It was a folded card of white card stock, but she had covered the entire front of it with a cut out from a wallpaper book. The design was a lovely flower which Mary had given a paper-tole-look by cutting part of a second flower, placing it on top of the first one, and adding dimension by separating the two with a sticky dot. On the corner of the envelope Mary added a matching flower.

Sabine Eid of Reston, Va., also sent in a card that she made; in fact, she sent in a number of cards. Each one was very pretty and very different from the others. All were made using a CD as the base.

In each case, Sabine made the basic card from a length of card stock so when folded in half crossways, it formed a square slightly larger than the CD. In several cases she used a design cut from a paper napkin (top layer only) and glued it to the CD with only small areas of the CD visible to give shine.

One she partially covered with a bouquet of roses, also from a paper napkin, and left the bottom third of the CD visible. Before gluing the roses in place, however, she crackled the surface of the CD by placing it in a dish with enough water to cover it and then placed it in the microwave for a minute or so. All of the cards were very inventive and very pretty. Sabine added that even her children were now involved in making note cards with CDs.

Laurie Lyke of Carmel, N.Y., sent in a photograph of what she called her "keepsake garland," which consisted of a bunch of mismatched mittens tied to a length of twisted, decorative rope and hung on the back of a small bench. The mittens were the leftovers--the ones that the children DIDN'T lose--during the previous winter season, so each had a bit of memory attached. Laurie also added a touch of Christmas to each mitten with a bow and some glitter.

Rita Gregory of Stanbury, Mo., sent in a couple of very interesting items that she had made, but I must admit that her packaging of the items fascinated me as well. The carton in which Rita mailed everything was small, sturdy, and had sides that folded down. It was on two of the sides that Rita taped a 3-inch length of cardboard tubing from bathroom tissue and inserted her small projects. They were secured in the tubing with pieces of tissue crumbled up and stuffed in. The items themselves were, obviously, very small.

One was a pendant on a string. The pendant was two acorn caps put together facing each other to form a small container, inside of which was a tiny silver charm.

The second contribution was a very little polymer clay "Queen Carol" seated inside a half walnut shell! The detail work was wonderful on these very inventive and tiny treasures.