Wood Notecard Box Makeover

My dear friend sent me a wood box that previously held notecards because she knows I'm mad about boxes.

I did a streaked paint job in black on the bottom and then applied flat latex in cream to the lid. I lightly sanded over the cream paint to give it a roughed up look and then did an image transfer using Citrasolv on top.

Because the box has a textured finish, the image is all vintagey looking which is what I was aiming for.

Altered Mini-Suitcase to Nail Polish Storage Case

I altered a dollar store cardboard mini suitcase into a box to hold my nailpolish. I covered it using a wrinkled Taiwanese newspaper my son sent me which was used to wrap a breakable item. The dragonflies are images I found, printed and painted using watercolours, then I applied glitter to the wings.  Everything was set into place using Mod Podge.

My son had a seal made with my name on it, and that is stamped in the lower left hand corner. Seals are used to 'sign' your name on official documents in China and Taiwan, and no two are alike, even if you have the same full name as a thousand people. Fun fact!

I told my son that I chose to believe that the Chinese writings were all thought provoking or spiritual articles, but it's actually the classified section and contains ads for iPhones and Honda Civics. Ha!

Altered Stationery Box Turned Sewing Stash Box

My son gave me a boxed set of stationery eons ago, and I have a thing for boxes and save everything he's ever given me, so this box sat empty in a drawer for over a decade.

I've recently fallen in love with altered art in all its forms, so it was only a matter of time before I remembered the existence of this box, and tried my hand at turning it into a useful item.

The image of the ladies came from a photocopy of an Advantage sewing pattern from the early 1960s and was printed using an office laser printer (Shhh!), and the embellishments were items I gathered up from my sewing stash.

I haven't quite decided it I've achieved maximum overkill with all the elements I've added because I tend to keep things simple, but it's growing on me.

I keep it on end table within reach of where I sit on my couch and it's filled with the items I am constantly in need of when I'm hand sewing, because I'm too lazy to run a flight of stairs to retrieve them.

Here's the before shot: