Here’s a quick Christmas gift craft idea: mat and decorate a little box, create some dividers, and fill it up with small goodies, neatly divided! 😃 (short video embedded below)
A Little Christmas Gift Box – With Your Own Dividers
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Category Archives: Altered objects
Bored of your clothes? Paint them!
Recently I decided to put some paints onto some shirts, because why not. Plus, let’s face it, plain shirts look boring in their original state.
I can highly recommend the Tim Holtz Distress Paints to customize any fashion items you have, since they were designed with fabrics in mind. If you know of other brands that are suitable for both papercrafting/mixed media and fabric painting, then please let me know in the comments!
I also played around with my green screen, and it all went a little overboard, so apologies for the ridiculousness of it all – but I had great fun trying 😁
How to make your own storage trays
i don’t know about you but my online shopping has multiplied ever since the (several) lockdowns were instated the past 18 months. Which means the number of shipping boxes and other packaging that entered my house also multiplied by a significant factor.
Of course I threw away most of it – but not all. For nice storage boxes can be quite expensive. Plus, while creating your own boxes from scratch is certainly doable (I even have a tutorial available for you in my shop), it takes several hours – and sometimes I just want something quick and easy.
That’s where these packaging boxes come in: they can easily be re-used, especially if you’re in the market for a particular size or shape of storage.
For instance, this small and low-edged box below already looked very smooth and sleek, so it was ideal to alter:
The box below was not perfect (it had some jagged edges) but the size was great for my lipsticks so I decided to use it anyway. Since I planned to fill it to the brim I didn’t bother painting the inside. It turned out quite lovely and I’m still using it to this day:
And as a bonus, here’s a pen holder I created from scratch, using only empty toilet paper rolls. I had this specific project in mind for storing my eyeliners and lipliners, because I didn’t want to spend any money on it.
So, enjoy the video, in which I’m sharing some tutorials for these. Have fun crafting and let me know in the comments what you do with your empty packagings!
Gift Idea: Altered Wooden Initial
Wooden alphabet letters are always great embellishments for gifts. Add the letters of the first and/or last names of your friend, co-worker or loved one to any card or mini album page, and the result will be instant success 🙂
For the front cover of my most recent paper bag mini album I altered such a wooden initial.
I first added two colors of Distress Oxide ink to color its base. I also chose several Distress Crayons to decorate later, after the second step.
Once the letter had a base color, I added a texture paste and let it dry. I chose Distress Grit Paste by Tim Holtz, but you can use any paste as long as you choose one that can be colored (some pastes act as a resist, avoid those for this type of project).
I added the paste in random spots, to give the letter a dimensional texture. Distress Grit Paste is semi-translucent, which is why I colored the letter first.
Then I used the Crayons to color the paste. (Crayons work best to color Distress Grit Paste,)
Lastly, when everything had dried, I added it to the album cover as an embellishment.
So you see how you can add a very personal touch to any of your gift projects without it taking a million steps! 🙂
1-sheet Project: Altered Pencil Organizer
It’s been a while since I showed you an altered box, so here we are 🙂
This time it’s a wooden pencil box I found in an art supply store, in which you could of course keep all kinds of memorabilia, ephemera, or paper scraps as well.
I altered it with a double-sided sheet from Stamperia’s Rose collection, and I always find it amazing that I often only need 1 sheet to alter an entire box! For other examples I can refer you to my Romantic Drawers box and to my cute little Christmas treasure chest, the latter of which I altered with 1 sheet of only 8×8 inches.
If you’ve never altered a box before and don’t know where to start, I’ve done several free video tutorials. You could start here and here.
Meanwhile, if you need some inspiration first, watch today’s video! 🙂
Tutorial: How to Change the Color of Your Earrings
This week I’m sharing a different kind of creative project: how to use your alcohol inks to change the colors of your acryllic or plastic earrings. This little hack is very handy to know and use, especially if you’re having an accessorizing crisis and are in a bind 🙂
So here we go, check out the video! The only thing you’ll need is 1 or more alcohol inks – and your earrings of course.
Tutorial: How to Alter a Jewelry Box
As you know I sometimes alter these nice, small boxes of all shapes and different sizes. This time, as a Christmas present for my mom, I decided to alter a jewelry box and to shoot a short tutorial while I was doing it.
By now I have several “How to alter a box” tutorial videos, all highlighting different aspects. So if you combine them all you get the entire process 🙂 :
- On how to lay the foundations of your project, and how to take measurements for all of your mats;
- On how to actually mat, and put your box back together (video below)
- On the creative side of the process: how do you create a ‘look’, to make it your personal design
So, hopefully you’ll be enjoying – and pressing the Like button! – the below video and pictures, and I’ll be seeing you again next week!
My Thinking Proces While Decorating a Box (relaxing video)
This week I’m sharing my thinking process while decorating an altered box. Some things are planned, but not everything. Most things work out, but not everything – and how to fix those. All in all I was pretty contented with how this little treasure chest turned out, and my friend was thrilled to receive it 🙂
If you want to know how to mat such a box in the first place, then check out one of my previous blog posts – or simply scroll down and find that video at the end of this post.
With its 25 minutes this week’s video is a bit long, and I’m mostly rambling on about what the next decorative element might be and why, plus I’m including several tips along the way. So get into your Chill Out mode, get a great cup of coffee or tea and a little snack, sit back, and most of all: relax and let the tone of my voice wash over you. Who knows, if you watch this in bed you may even fall asleep before the end – in which case: Sweet Dreams! 🙂 💤
How to mat a box:
Gift Idea: Upcycled Jewelry Box
Sometimes that accessory you buy comes in a small jewelry box. My recent such purchase sported the name of the shop on its lid, but apart from that the box had a very nice antique bronze color, which inspired me to re-use it as a gift box.
So I thought I’d share this idea with you today, for this is the perfect little quick scrap gift idea, which you can finish in about 15 minutes (tops). Simply alter the lid, covering the shop’s name or logo, by decorating it with some design paper, a brad, and some embellishments.
It’s very easy to do, it’ll cost you hardly any time at all, and you’ll have a uniquely customized gift box for your present. 🙂
How to color glass with alcohol ink and wax paint
Here’s a quick little gift idea: buy a nice little colorless tealight glass, and color it with two or more colors of alcohol ink. Add some extra decorations with wax paint and an art stencil, and you’re ready to go.
I think this took me less than 1 hour to make, including drying time 🙂
Monochrome White Micro Chest
If you’d like to order a customized micro chest, please check out my Showroom of Luxurious Boxes & Gifts.
In this week’s Blog Exclusive post I’m sharing an altered micro chest. You’ve seen me do these before, as nursery decor pieces and as gift boxes both feminine and masculine.
This time I was asked to add a micro treasure chest to one of my customized 100% photo explosion boxes, with the added challenge to work in only one color, creating a so-called monochrome project: white. So I painted the chest white, then matted it with some white wood texture paper that I embossed with a wood pattern first. Finally I created some faux leather strips from white cardstock. I’m quite pleased with the effect, and with the surprisingly different shades of white that are – apparently – possible.
Have you ever created any monochrome projects? Do you like them at all? Please share your thoughts in the comment section underneath this post!
Altered baby gift box
If you want to give someone a really personalized gift, then altering an object is not only a great gift idea, it’s also a very reasonably priced one. Take this box for instance, it was sold as a plain white box with a white-coated, stamped piece of burlap on its lid. Not super expensive, and with lots of gift-giving potential.
In this case it was for a baby shower, so I altered it using lots of baby blue goodness and other cute stuff.
And here’s another idea: you can give this gift together with some of your less creative friends – and have them stuff the finished box with all kinds of nice little baby clothes, socks, pacifiers etc! This way, you will be able to give a sophisticated gift – with the personal touch as a bonus.
Of course you can do this on all kinds of other occasions: think birthdays, weddings, house warmings, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, etc.
So check out the video, and take all the inspiration you like from it!