Little wood box

I seem to be finding a lot of little boxes lately.  This is the latest.

DRAT!  The insides are painted!  It’s less work to male-over if I don’t have to do the inside; but the price was right so I bought it.

I sanded some of the original paint off the lid, just enough to distress the edges a bit and hot have dark red or blue show through.  Drilled a hole and added a vintage copper knob.

Added some vintage dictionary pages to the bottom and back side of the lid.

Is it DONE now???  Feels like it needs something more, but not sure just what??  Sorted through box after box of assorted supplies and embellishments  and STILL not sure ‘else’ it needed.  When I am feeling ‘stumped’ like this over the finishing touches on a project, I usually just stash it away and don’t think about it for a while.

And sure enough, a few weeks later I was rummaging through my box of old keys for a different project and came across this key* with ‘secret’ stamped onto it.  PERFECT!!

*I think the key is from a set of Tim Holtz supplies.  I have several of them, all with different words on them.

I was in a similar dilemma with this little four drawer chest.  Found a tiny skeleton key and padlock charm to tie onto a knob.  Added some vintage dictionary paper to the backing (which is ‘oddly’ inset?!?) and to bottoms of the drawers.

They are both available in my booth at Stars.

Prettied up trinket boxes

Cute little trinket box with magnetic closure makes for a quick and easy make-over.  (found the box at dollar store!)

I cut a piece of paper big enough to cover the existing image; but left the pretty border still visible.

Then I glued a stamped piece of muslin on top of that; just a little off-center.

I added a little scrap of matching paper to the underside of the lid.

The sticky label on the bottom of this one just so happened to peel off perfectly; which is NOT usually the case.  IF it had not come off without damaging the bottom of the box, I would have glued another piece of paper to the bottom as well.

Just so happened to find another box at a different store, with the exact same design.  Went with a simpler design on this one.  Covered the whole top and front with vintage dictionary page; added a vintage post card image and a ‘paper’ key.

This one is a soap box that I saved.

This one had a very pretty design on the existing paper, so I just needed to partly cover it.  A piece of paper and a crown stamped on muslin, off-center.

A little piece of matching paper to cover the ‘non-removable’ label on the bottom of the box.

And a little piece on the underside of the lid ‘just for fun’ (this piece wasn’t really ‘necessary’ because it’s not covering anything  . . . I just thought it added a little interest!)

Upcycled soap box

Hello, my name is aj; and I’m a ‘soapaholic’. 

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you’ve probably already figured that out!  I must confess that my addiction goes further than that.

I can’t resist ‘sniffing soaps’ at the store.

No, not the soaps in the soap aisle at the grocery store.  The ‘fancy’ soaps that come in pretty boxes.  Marshall’s is my favorite store for ‘soap sniffing’.  But I don’t sniff just ‘any soap’!  No ‘floral’ fragrances for me (except Lavender).  Other floral scents make me sneeze!  And I only like ‘neutral color’ soaps.I I was attracted to this box of soap because of the pretty box.  When I opened it and saw that it was PINK, I quickly put the lid back on and replaced it on the shelf withOUT even smelling it.  Because I don’t like pink soaps!

Just as I was starting to reach for the next box to open and sniff; the fragrance from that box with pink soap gently wafted by and it was AMAZING!  It smelled like a fresh strawberry pie.  I could NOT resist a full on sniff.  I HAD to buy it!

The soap itself went directly into my shower and the box to my craft table.  I especially like how the box was decorated with the baker’s twine.  (will have to remember that trick!)

I love upcycling these pretty soap boxes.  Usually I have to re-cover the entire box; but this one was already decorated so nicely that I only had to cover the ‘soap’ information.

I found some print scrap book paper that coordinated with the paper on the box to cover the front label.

Used a piece of the same paper to cover the bottom of the box.

There was a removable ‘riser’ in the bottom of the box that I wanted to leave in place because it SMELLED so good; so I added some of the same paper to it.

Easy peasey pretty (and fragrant!) little gift box ready to go!

Upcycled vintage candy box

Vintage wood candy box I found at an estate sale.

The top was fairly beat up.

Nice clean ‘innards’ though!

I would have guessed that it was maybe a cigar box; but the label on the bottom tells otherwise.

I sanded off the picture on the top with my orbital sander; then hand sanded the rest of the outside.  (it had a glossy varnish, so it HAD to be sanded before painting.)

Painted the whole thing aqua; then sanded.

BEFORE I had decided how to decorate the top of the box, I decided to use this pretty turquoise glitter paper on the inside because . . . well because I just got it and was itchin’ to use it!  (probably should have waited until I finished the outside first though!)

I selected this paper napkin for the top of the box.

This particular design ‘opens out’ to cover the whole napkin.  (not ALL decorative napkins do though!)

This was the napkin I wanted to use at first.

Alas, this design just repeats, limiting how it can be used.

The sheerness of the napkin allows the distressed wood to show though.  I used Mod Podge to apply the napkin to the box.

Then I glued a reproduction skeleton key to the front.

It’s available in my booth at Stars; along with several other upcycled little boxes!

Little boxes made from reclaimed wood

 

Michael built these simple boxes with lids out of reclaimed wood.

For the darker primitive ones, I base-coated the outside with black paint first.

Applied my second coat of paint color and sanded a little to distress.  I ‘just happened’  to be making some checkerboards at the same time and decided to use the stencil on a couple of the boxes.  Apparently it was a good idea because the two with the checkerboard sold right away.

I wanted a way to keep the lids in place that would be fairly simple.  Had Michael cut two little strips of luan which I glued to the underside of the lids.

I ‘thought’ they were done at this point, but as they sat on my work table and I kept looking at them, I decided they needed FEET and a knob.

So I went digging through my big box of assorted small wood parts and found some wood spools and candle holders that I decided would make nice little feet.  And some wood knobs (which I’ve also used as feet in the past!)

Just glued them on with tacky glue.

Measured and marked the center of the lid for the knobs, predrilled a hole and screwed them in from the underside.  They look much more ‘finished’ now.

Although I did go back and add a wood carved applique to the black one.

Then I decided to do a couple of lighter colored shabby ones.

Used the wood carved appliques.  And little wood ‘game pieces’ for the feet. 

Since these didn’t have as much surface area to glue, I predrilled holes in them and the bottom of the boxes.  Glued the legs on right over my predrilled holes; then screwed them on from the inside.

For the knobs on the shabby ones I used some little wood BOWLS!

SO, Michael and I were discussing what we should replace the scrapbook section with once all that stuff is sold out (it’s all on clearance right now) and we decided to put in a ‘do it yourselfer’ section that will contain things like these unfinished boxes, the stuff for knobs and feet, the carved wood appliques, unfinished wood napkin holders . . . like these:

Some wood boxes withOUT lids, like these:

All kinds of great things that you can paint and finish yourself!  We’re hoping to have the DIY section up and running the first part of February.

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