Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a Christmas chocolate box that holds a small collection of Santas.


At one time I had a huge collection of St. Nicks, that I have gradually, over the years, pared down, gifted and given away.

These are the smaller ones I have left and

the large ones grace the mantel this year
(because that's one place the cat's can't get to!)

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a decorative "book" box from Michael's. This one holds a grouping of some of my favourite Christmas ornaments.



They include Wendy Addison (Theatre of Dreams), Patricia Griffin, and a lot of misc. bits and bobs including some fun wire and metal tendrils.



We have a copper vase full of curly willow on our mantel and every December these rustic beauties grace the branches and brighten our season.

PS - If you played the give-away game in yesterday's blog, send me your address so I can get your book to you! My e-mail is on the right hand sidebar near the top.

Cigar Box Wednesday

On this 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor it seemed appropriate to show the contents of this decorative tin, and to extend a thank you to all WWII vets.


Photos, medals, booklets, postcards and other ephemera left over from my The Pity of War exhibition early this year.

All waiting until a future time when I visit this subject again.

Cigar Box Wednesday

This one's full of transparencies. Some purchased, some found in magazines or old books. Some from scrapbook stores, some from flea markets.

And as we all know the perfect thing when
we want just one more layer!

Cigar Box Wednesday

Not cigar boxes this week, but cigar labels.
Tiny, beautiful works of art.

From Winston Churchill to U.S. Grant to a bit of cheesecake,
these masterpieces of lithography have it all.

A search of eBay, Etsy or just Google and
you'll find more than you can imagine.

photos courtesy of 1.) about.com.cigars 2.) artfire.com 3.) papiervalise.com

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a decorative tin. This one holds watch faces and watches.

Gathered from flea markets, Etsy, eBay, thrift stores,
garage sales and enabling friends.

Nothing seems to say Steampunk quite as well!

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a small decorative box that holds beautiful wide satin ribbon.



These are from various fabric stores and an exquisite paper store in the Pearl Arts District in Portland.

Fun to use in journals and collage and glorious
just to run through your fingers!

Cigar Box Wednesday

Another tiny cigar tin, this one home to piano key ivory. These are the ivory tops and sides of old piano keys. Margot found these for me on Etsy and I find them fascinating.


I've used them in some of my steampunk assemblages and check here to see some lovely Nina Bagley creations including piano ivory.

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a holiday tin that holds all the picture hanging material. And I will be using it over and over again this week as I prepare pieces for this weekend's Open Studios.



I suppose there are those of you out there that are smart enough to add your hangers and wire as soon as you finish a piece - and how I wish I was too. But invariably I find myself in the last week before a show screwing in eye bolts and twisting wire in the wee hours of the night before the next day's opening!

Cigar Box Wednesday

This box is full of wood trim - fun shapes, very lightweight, takes paint, stain or ink. I recently found a terrific source for these in all kinds of delightful shapes and at fabulous prices.

They are wonderful for assemblage, their light weight makes them work in collage as well and what fun on journal covers!

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a tin that once held salted carmel bark (yum!) and now holds watchmaker's tools.


Margot found this set on e-Bay and we are eagerly planning to use it to take apart all the old watches we've amassed from swap meets, flea markets, garage sales and - oh yeah - all the ones we've stopped wearing over the years. Nothing better for steampunk assemblages and jewelry pieces.

Cigar Box Wednesday

These are not only cigar boxes, but they are also tins which makes them eligible twice to be on a Cigar Box Wednesday post. They originally held very slender cigars - remember "Cigars, cigarettes, Tiparillos?" sort of like that.


And they hold small plastic ants and beautiful butterflies. I used a bunch of these a few years ago in my Young Naturalist assemblage. They wait patiently in these small slim tins until I need them again.

Cigar Box Wednesday

I think this may be my oldest cigar box - I love how distressed it is, and the still beautiful artwork on the inside lid.



It's full of - metal Leaves - shiny, rusted, thick, thin, different colours, different sizes.



All waiting to adorn the front of a journal or to be the crowning touch of an assemblage.



Flea markets, swap meets, Art from Scrap, - it's Autumn - leaves are everywhere!

Cigar Box Wednesday

This is one of my more interesting cigar boxes. A vintage Roi-Tan cigar tin. It's full of escutcheons, those cool little metal pieces that go around a key hole. You don't see them much now, most keys fit directly into the door knob.



I've gathered them from swap meets, flea markets, antique shops and shows. I even found a couple in a delightfully cramped quasi junk shop on the outskirts of Taos a couple of years ago. They are wonderful in assemblages, so evocative of a bygone age and time.

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a Bailey's Irish Creme decorative tin.




This one full of the inside spines of old books-on-CD cases. The cases wear out fairly often at the library and then just get thrown out.



I don't know what I'll do with them, use them some way in home-made journals I think. But they will patiently wait for me until I figure it out!

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a Whitman's Sampler Chocolate box. This one full of old toy train cars.



Swap meets are great places to find these, as well as thrift stores, garage sales and antique malls.



Wood, metal, plastic - they bring back a whiff of childhood and Christmas mornings under the tree. Both my dad and my brother were big HO fans and some of their train-love rubbed off on me.

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a wooden tea bag box that's just the right size for my over-sized Sennelier oil pastels.

These are so big and such juicy colours - even if I didn't love to use them in my mixed media art pieces they'd be fun to have just to look at and hold!

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a vintage tackle box. And this one holds my metal working tools.

A butane torch, files, hammer, slab,

and my metal punch alphabets and numbers.

Cigar Box Wednesday

When is a cigar box not a cigar box? When it's a metal lunch box - this one is a repro from The Container Store and just the right size to hold all my glue.



Until you start doing mixed media art you have no idea how many types of glue are out there - glue sticks, PVA, Yes!, Liquid Nails, glue dots, E-6000, The Ultimate, yada-yada-yada.



And each one works best for a particular situation. And then of course, there's gel medium and matte medium and...