Super Hero Box

What to do for a teenage boy?  Well, I still had lots of wooden boxes of the type I made my lady boxes with, so I just modified for a boy. He calls this his "gaming" box.   I used a bright yellow paint for the edges, corners, and anything I didn't feel like papering around, then used super hero themed scrapbooking paper and modge podge to cover the top, front and sides of the box.  Then, I filled it with all kinds of snacks for the gaming teenager.

Memo Boards

What do you do when you come into a bunch of canvas and you're not a painter?  Make memo boards.  We start with a bunch of canvas, the fabric of your choice, a staple gun and a hammer.

Leave yourself a couple inches of fabric in all directions so you can pull it tight around to the back of the frame of the canvas.  Staple the fabric every couple inches so it stays tight.  I found that I had to use a hammer to really nail the staples in place tight.

Once your canvases are covered, you will need ribbon and either brads to hold the ribbon in place, or you can use buttons and a hot glue gun.  I prefer to use brads because I'm concerned that after time the hot glue may pull apart.  I used the staple gun to attach the ribbon to the back of the frames and then pulled it around tightly to make my design.  Be sure your ribbon is tight, so that it will hold cards, photos, lists - anything one wants to hang on the board.  To finish these off cleanly, I recommend taking them to a craft store with a framing shop and having them put brown paper on the back of the canvas to cover the staples, and then you can attach a hanger to the back of the frame, or have the framing shop do it.  They only charge a couple dollars to do it, and it's MUCH easier than trying to do it at home - you'll spend more on the supplies and time and frustration trying to get it done cleanly.

I did a variety of different designs.

 

 

 

 

This one above I did a little differently.  I used a dark purple raffia and I wanted a clothesline style, so I left the raffia loose enough to be able to hand down just a bit, then clipped on mini clothespins.

 

 

 

Above - I used lettered brads to spell out "I love you"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lady Box

This one is a little different, and was inspired by a friend of mine who is very proper and discreet. I was helping her rearrange one day, and she had a beautiful, victorian-ish box on the bathroom floor.  I asked her where she wanted it, and she informed me that it stays in the restroom.  So I asked what it was, and she said it was her "ladybox".  Turns out, it's a box that she keeps all of her monthly "lady" needs in.  I thought this would make a nice "coming of age" gift for a teen age girl that wasn't too embarrassing, and could be decorated to match her personality.   What an interesting way to store an item that usually hidden out of sight, and often inconveniently located under the bathroom sink when you really need it.  And especially for teenage girls that share a bathroom with a brother.


Basically, I just took hinged, wooden boxes and the paper of my choice and used modge podge to cover the outside of the boxes.  I then used neon chalk pens to outline the individual pieces of paper on the boxes, give it a "map-ish" sort of look.  Oh, fyi, when using chalk pens, do NOT push down on the tip, just let it flow.  If you push down, this is what happens.

Basic boxes.

These are two that I did for a couple of young girls.  The first was for a 10 year old that LOVES bright colors and funky patterns.  The second was for a 15 year old that like things bright and wild.

 

 

 

And the second box....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lace Painted Barstool

Picked up this ugly old bar stool at a yard sale for $1.00.  Yay!!!!  Gonna have some fun with it.

 

 

 

 

First thing I did  was tighten up the screws on the metal band so the stool was stable and sanded down any rough spots on the stool.  Then I used a Brushed Copper spray paint and repainted the aluminum bar.

Then I used an off white semi-gloss to repaint the entire stool.

Now, the fun part.  I taped a lace doilie to the top of the stool and used the Brushed Copper spray paint to spray over the doilie.  I immediately pulled the doilie off once I was done spraying so it wouldn't dry to the stool - spray paint dries fairly quickly.  I used a small brush and the off white paint to cover any over spray from the copper outside of the lace edge.  And this is what I ended up with.

 

 

 

Wildflower Swag

Kind of been slacking on the craft projects lately, but I threw together a quick swag for a friend this morning.  Started with stacks of flowers.

Attached the 2 lengths of ivy together in the center using a zip tie, then added two zip ties about 4 inches on each side from the center, layered all the flowers in the order I wanted them, then tightened the zip ties down to hold them together.  I then hotglued a strip of burlap ribbon to cover the center and hot glued the center rose onto that.  Sliced the burlap lengthwise in both directions and wound it through the floral arrangment.  Fininshed it off by adding a wire hanger to the back.

Travel Keepsake Box

I picked up this old handmade plywood box at a yard sale for $1.00 last week.

What to do.....

Well, how about a keepsake box?  Hold pictures and postcards and misc travel memorabilia. Why not?  I started by using a liquid distress stain in Walnut, just to darken the wood.  I'm lazy and didn't want to take off the hardware, so I discovered that a Q-Tip worked nicely for getting the stain into small places. Turned out like this.

I then tore up several pieces of travel-themed scrapbooking paper and used a brush on Distress Ink in Antique Linen to age the paper a bit.  Then I used Modge podge to glue the papers to the interior of the box.

For the embellishment on top, I used a journaling card with an old fashioned print on it, and aged the edges using Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I punched a whole in the upper corner of the paper and tied a piece of rafia through it after sliding a small rusted star onto it, and then just tied it in a bow. I affixed it to the top of the box using glue dots.

And the end result

Young ladies first jewelry box

What to do for an 11 year old.....well, she's just starting to get a few pieces of jewelry, so maybe it's time for a "starter" jewelry box.  This one I started from a plain unfinished box and just kind of winged it.  So here is what I started with.

Supplies I used for this project: unfinished box, 1 piece of scrap booking paper 12x12, modge podge, 2 colors of paint to match/contrast the paper I chose, 1 rhinestone embellishment, 4 cut out flower shapes in differing sizes, 1 pearlized brad, Distress Ink (I used Amethyst on this one).


I started by painting the box with my two colors in a pattern I liked, including the interior walls of the drawers. While the paint dried I cut the scrapbooking paper to size for the top of the box and the front drawer, then used modge podge to affix the paper to the box. Then I used the reverse side of the paper which had a contrasting pattern and cut it to size to line the interior drawers and used modge podge to set those.

 Paint was dry, so I affixed the rhinestone embellishment to the front of the box.  I then used the Distress Ink to go over the exterior paper.  When I chose this paper, it was a hideous pattern of orange and green and purple and pink.  Using the Distress Ink softened all of the colors and made it more lavender than orange.

  For the final touch I made a paper flower by cutting petal shapes from several different papers, and again used distress ink to make the edges purple.  I connected all the petals by punching a brad through the center, and then attached it to the box using glue dots on each petal, though you could easily use hot glue or E6000.

The interior ended up like this