3 out of 3 ain't bad!

... or: hugs and kisses vs noughts and crosses!

My third Envelope of Doom project is done. Help me Rhonda, it took three days altogether to finish, with small interruptions like watching my beloved Slovenia get kicked out of the World Cup and other minor injuries...

I mentioned that Mich had the decency to send me 2 Starbucks cards in her EoD. What the heck is one to do with them? I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Need a reminder?

 I mean, WHAT?? But The Man came to the rescue. While I was waiting for another project (the mauve plastic flowers of doom) to dry, I was sat on the couch staring at the cards, trying to think of something other than an ice scraper to turn them into. He just looked up from his Final Fantasy game and said "Why don't you cut them up to turn them into an x or a mini bookshelf for a mouse house?" (we don't have mice. There is a cute rat family living somewhere near our garden, and the spiders in the basement are most certainly bigger than your average mouse, but that's it. He thinks in mysterious ways... )
But anyway, and idea was born.

First, I went ahead and measured and cut up an old card, a leftover from Germany which won't be missed. Measuring and cutting the bugger took ages! This is what the final result looked like:

Then, they were sanded and spray- painted (in the basement. Remember the mouse- sized spiders? I was in a bit of hurry!) Anyway, after two coats, this is what I had:

At this point, I decided to cheat. Mich, both your Starbucks cards are still alive, I decided to just stick with my prototype. I couldn't bear the thought of two more hours of cutting, running down and up the basement stairs and watching paint dry... I hope that's okay...

Can you guess where this is going?

The next day, I grabbed an old sweetie tin and spray painted it white. When dry, the card pieces got hot glued to some of that black foamy mat and attached to the inside of the lid. Then, I cut an X and an O from yet another piece of foam mat and made a very nifty, extremely imaginative stamp. C'mon, you know what is going on now, don't you?

I know, even I can hardly believe how clever I am, that's okay, folks.

This is going to be a gift for my giftee at the Craftaholics Anomymous Christmas in July International Gift Exchange, so while I was waiting for the stamps to dry, I made a pair of earrings for my giftee which I call "English Rose", so when she wears them, she hopefully feels very english :) Have a look:

What I needed now for my Travel Tic Tac Toe (you guessed it, right?) were Noughts and Crosses. And since I had The Man' s very expensive acrylic paints out anyway (he was cool about it, by the time I started this blog post, he'd almost stopped sweating!), I decided to murder an old necklace from the charity shop and turn the beads into gamepieces. The whole thing looked like this:

See the names on the paint jars? The Man used to paint wargaming miniatures. Skull white is harmless. Wait till you come across stuff like snot green, warlock purple and tentacle pink...

Here's what the game thing looks like. Crosses win. Btw, in real life, the painted hot glue is less prominent, it's the flash that makes it stand out.

 And this is what my giftee will receive, nicely wrapped up and hopefully a little to her liking:

There, you have it. I never want to talk about Starbucks cards again, in fact, I don't even want to drink coffee ever again. And should my giftee read this: I loved making it, sore hands and all. I have never made anything like this before, and I hope you'll have as much fun with it as I had creating it.

There will be more projects of Doom, this was GREAT! But for now, I need a break from paint and hot glue and will treat myself to a nice pint of Guinness.
Burp.