Altered Matchstick Holder

Happy Weekend Everyone!

This is a vintage matchstick holder that I altered as a gift for my sister Tina's birthday.  (The picture on the left is NOT the one I altered but I forgot to take a "Before" picture so it's just a sample of what they look like when they're in the original form.)  The one I used was unpainted, bare metal and banged up; nothing as nice as the red one in the photo!! LOL!



I painted the bare metal with a base coat of gesso, then dry brushed Turquoise and copper acrylic paint over it until I was happy with the faux rustic, patina color.  I downloaded a sheet of vintage images from this Etsy shop and chose one of the photos of a little girl with a flower cart to use on the back.  I printed it out, distressed the edges then glued it to the back of the holder.  I also added a faint smudge of TH "Worn Lipstick" distress ink on the flowers.

Next I picked out some vintage trims from my stash that matched the color scheme and glued them around the holder.  From there, I went through my stash of paper flowers and chose different ones that I thought went with the trims and the overall color scheme.

After getting those glued on, I chose to use this cute little straw and paper barn owl that I got from Hobby Lobby. It came on a card of three in the natural flower supplies section.  I just positioned him on the front of the holder and added more trims and flowers.

I also used some natural white flower-bud sprays that I got from the same section at HL along with some brown wire that I coiled, and just inserted them behind and among the flowers and trim.

Finally, I had these small rustic tin birds, that I picked up in Santa Fe during the same trip home this summer, that I wanted to use on the holder.  I added a tiny satin rose and feather to the front of one of them and glued a strong magnet to the back.  So now it comes off and can be used as a note holder on the tin or just completely separately. 


This is the holder without the little bird:

The back side showing the vintage image and some metal tags saying "Happy Birthday"

The only problem I had was getting it to sit on the table top without falling backwards!  It kept falling over when I put pens or scissors in there as a test to see if it would hold anything. Because it was originally designed at an angle to hang on the wall - that would allow the matchsticks to roll forward so the well stayed full - it would not stay standing!! Boo!!  So Carl, my amazing husband to the rescue.  He cut a piece of heavy wood as a base to accommodate the slant, screwed it onto the bottom, and now it is the perfect little desktop tin holder!  I love it!!

Here's some photos from other angles:

You can see here how much of an angle the slant was at.

View from the top - You can see how it is banged up in the back

My "vision" of it being used as a desktop accessory for pens and business cards!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!