ALTERED BOX

Hi everyone! Welcome to today’s post. It is all about the altered box that I finished the other day. I made this for a fellow crafter who I will be meeting next week. I am excited to meet her. She is actually the first ever crafter that I will be meeting personally. I don’t go out often and I only mostly interact with the crafting community online. So this meeting will really be memorable and fun since we will be looking for supplies in the shopping mecca of Manila. I can’t wait to see all those supplies out there!

Oops. Sorry. I got carried away. Let me continue with the altered box. Heh. I have these medium-sized kraft boxes from one of my divi trips two years ago. I had intended to use them to hold Christmas gifts that particular year, but I only used two of the twelve that I bought. I used six of them to store dried flowers and seeds from three bags of potpourri I got from Papemelroti and the rest were packed away at the top of my closet.

I thought of giving her a small gift when we get together, something that I made. I figured that I could make book page embellishments and paper clips like the ones I made for the guestbook commission. With that in mind, I would need something to hold all those small things and tada! What about a box? an altered one? I could surely make one since I’ve already something similar before. Of course I then remembered my stash of round boxes waiting to be noticed. Yay!

I covered the inside of the box with several coats of gesso as well as all the parts of the lid. After the inside part dried, I gessoed the bottom of the box and the rim. Then I painted the lid and the bottom of the box with black acrylic paint. I left the inside white.  

I adhered two strips of patterned paper (8” in length each) onto the outer part of the box and sanded the edges. I inked them afterwards.

As for the lid, I coated the top with crackle paint and affixed a length of lace trimming around the side. I then proceeded to decorate. I added a die cut with an alpha tile onto the box for a finishing touch. I just love decorating. I can’t wait to start my art journal! Of course I am more excited of decorating the cover. Haha. I hope I would be able to do it soon. Gah. I’d really love to have an art journal of my own. I’ll post some photos as soon as I finish it.

That was another fun project. I hope she likes the box and the fufus inside. Thank you for stopping by! Have a wonderful week!

P.S. I forgot to show the little embellishments I made to go inside the box.

I was supposed to put a tissue paper inside before placing the goodies, but the clips just wouldn't fit so I left it as it is.

I ran out of the bigger silver paper clips so I just used the small ones covered with vinyl. Gah. I am enjoying making cutesie paper clips. I'll try my hand on small origami flowers for the embellishment some time soon. For returning clients, I will be giving a set for free (instead of the card/bookmark since I already gave them one when they ordered the first time). I'll make other kinds of freebies as well. Thanks again for looking!

MATERIALS AND TOOLS USED: Kraft box, Graphic 45 8x8 French Country Collection, Rives Board Paper Tradition Black, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Alpha Tiles, paper flowers, paper ferns, Eno Greeting Wooden Embellishments, wooden flowers, metal charms, beads, buttons, Ranger Distressed Crackle Paint Rock Candy, Marie's Gesso, Pebeo Acrylic Colour Mars Black, Stanley Glue Gun, Beauty Premium Pigment Ink Black, Spellbinders Nestabilities Splendid Circles and A2 Card Creator Tranquil Moments, Cuttlebug Machine V2 (For the loose embellishments: Bevania Splendorgel Board Paper Ivory, book pages, Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black, Ranger Distressed Crackle Paint Rock Candy, Kaisercraft Clear Stamps Botanical Odyssey, Bo Bunny Clear Stamps Flourishes and Such, Inkadinkado Clear Stamps Inspirational Lift and Bird House, paper clips, self-adhesive crystals, black felt, Stanley Glue Gun, glue stick)