Thrifty Thursday: Matrix Love

WARNING: The following blog post may cause marital spats, the redefinition of the term garbage and/ or dumpster diving divas.

Let me begin at the beginning. When we moved, Ethan's favorite game was left behind at a friend's house. As most good moms would, I bought him a new one. And as most good crafters would, I saved the matrices from the packaging.

I know better than to leave anything Eric could consider garbage (most of my belongings) out. But, this time I forgot. The next morning, I spotted the matrices in the kitchen recycle bin. I quickly snatched them up and hid them in a secret spot (I can't say where because Eric may read this and then all would be lost... I hide chocolate there for emergency use by myself only). 

Yesterday I sat down at my desk and started working on my matrices adding in an old Christmas ornament package to the mix. Eric looked over and said, "I thought I threw those away."

I said, "You did, I've been hiding them ever since."

Matrices are great for using as masks and stencils, but I wasn't in the mood to get too messy and I wanted to try to push myself to find other ways to use them.

So here's what I did.

First, I cut out one of the hexagons and made it into a pincushion using some of our Odds and Ends fabric. I am giving this to a friend that loves sewing. Even the crocheted flower and button can be removed to use on a project. If I would have had a box, I would have placed the pincushion on the top and made a sewing box, but alas I did not so I'll just save that idea for another day.



Then I used another hexagon matrix as a template to make this layout with Twenty Three. (By the way, my matrices come from the game Settlers of Catan and the backside is cream colored. It's a fun game to play too.)



I planned to use the Christmas ornament matrix over the top of these circles, but I liked the clean look better. I did use the matrix as a guide to place all the circles. It made spacing them a cinch!



Finally, to entertain Jack, I taught him to wind string through the openings in the matrices to make decorations. It was a good idea and so I cut a shape out, notched it every 1/8" to hold the string and wrapped it to make this fun card. I was just lucky in that the button fit the hole left in the matrix perfectly.

Maybe you have a different idea for using matrices? If so share with us in the comments below. Also, if you all think a tutorial is needed for any of the above projects let me know. I am on tutorial-by-demand mode at the moment.