Le Cirque Train
By Vanessa Spencer

To find and view the products I used, click here.

Using inspiration from the cover of Lisa Kettell’s book, "Altered Art Circus," I decided to create my own mini circus train using Le Cirque Papers (5GR-4500315) by Graphic 45. My daughter loves to help me with projects, so I had a little assistance for this one! My petite artist’s favorite crafts are painting and gluing, so armed with some foam brushes, paint (5EC-01045), and adhesive (5EC-05305), my daughter and I got to work!

First, I cut out the front of the recycled boxes to create the carriages. This is a great way to repurpose old pasta or food boxes, and they would also make great shadow boxes. I sealed the top of each box by simply taping it shut. My daughter and I then painted the inside of each box with Sand Acrylic Paint (5EC-01045).

The next step consisted of trimming some of the circus papers the correct size to fit the boxes. Once we had done this, we glued all of the pieces onto the boxes with a Matte Medium (5EC-05305) and allowed the boxes to dry. I cut out some of the larger circus character images from Graphic 45’s Le Cirque Paper Pad (5GR-4500315), and we glued the characters to the inside of the boxes, as shown.

To complete the mini circus train, turn each box upside down, and add wooden spools (5HP-SPOOLS) to the bottoms for the wheels. It can be a bit of a challenge to get the spools to stick to the boxes, so I had to experiment a little to make it work. I ended up using a strong tape adhesive and then added a few drops of diamond glaze to the inside of the wheels. For the two larger boxes, I added chipboard buttons (5JB-BUTTONS01 - DISCONTINUED) onto the spools to add some interest. Lastly, I glued a piece of twine (5CC-CRD2001) or you could alternatively punch holes and string the twine through them in order to link the boxes together like train carriages.

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Wooden Forms - Spools
9 Small, 1/2" D x 5/8" H
5 Medium, 3/4" D x 1" H
2 Large, 1 3/8" D x 2" H
Price $5.95
SKU: 5HP-SPOOLS
Order Online!

Hemp Rope Natural
13.7m (45 ft)
Price: $3.59
SKU: 5CC-CRD2001
Order online!

Le Cirque 12x12
12 x 12" Paper Pad includes 20 double-sided papers (two each in ten assorted styles, plus one each double-sided die-cuts, tags, and boarders)
Price: $20.99
SKU: 5GR-4500315
Order online!

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Sand Acrylic Paint
2.5 fl. oz
Price: $3.29
SKU: 5EC-01045
Order online!

Matte Artist Medium
16 fl.oz. / 473 ml
Price: $14.89
SKU: 5EC-05305
Order online!