Decorate Boxes

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

Decorate boxes to make cute craft storage containers!

Do you like to decorate boxes? When you add value to a previously plain, ordinary container, you are actually making an altered art project.

Do you have some plain cardboard containers that look like they are going to stick around on your own craft desk? Seek them out for this project.

"Veni. Vidi. Velcroe.
I came. I saw. I stuck around".
~Anonymous

Ideas to Decorate Boxes

At the Stampin' Out Alzheimer's craft event, one of the challenges was to make an item other than a card using buttons as a decorative element.

First, I wondered what to do. I had not thought about using my craft supplies in this way before (I love challenges for stretching my imagination and have set some challenges up for you to take a look at as well, just for this purpose!)

I thought I might make a scrapbook page with some button embellishments, but that seemed like something I had done before. Then I thought maybe I would make a bracelet out of buttons.Again, it seemed too much like threading beads, something I had done before.

Before I could get organised to do that, my eye lit on the unadorned cardboard box I was keeping my reinkers and various paints in. I was suddenly inspired to turn that little eyesore into something a whole lot cuter. I decided to wrap buttons all around that little unsuspecting craft container, and then I thought of a few more techniques I could use to dress it up and alter it:

First I found some pretty designer series paper (double sided patterend scrapbook paper) and I covered the box with that. I saved a piece of the same paper to line the bottom of the box.

Next I knew the container had a clear acrylic lid. I decided to use my Stazon ink to stamp some pretty little butterflies on the inside. If I had wanted to I would have painted and glittered them up (also on the inside). Acetate is hard to stamp on with ordinary pigment inks without smearing them and they may never dry on your project, so if you try stamping on acetate, always use a permanent ink like Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp on acetate.

Then I raided my button stash and started gluing them on to the outside of the acrylic lid in between the butterfly images where it pleased my eye. I added in a stamped shrinky-dink image as well. It's the fleur de lis 'button' you can see in one of the photos.I used Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue to do this. You could also use a heat gun.

I just kept adding stamped images and buttons until I was happy with the result. There are no rights or wrongs in crafting, just that it needs to please your own eye!

Do you think it turned out well? I think it definitely looks heaps better to decorate boxes than to leave them as plain cardboard especially if they are holding useful items on your craft desk.Seeing them decorated is much more pleasing to me than looking at raw, battered cardboard.

If you ever get tired of your decorated box, you can redecorate it. In this case, for example, I could always use acrylic paints and metallic pastes to dress my box up another way!

Want another example?

Another cardboard container that I had on my desk got a decorative makeover with every Washi tape I had.

I used a cardboard paper roll from a paper towel holder to thread the Washi rolls onto it and store it in the Washi tape decorated container. That seemed appropriate to me.

It didn't turn out too pretty. I need to add some decorations to the lid flaps of the box. But I can always find my Washi tape now! And the decorations remind me of which tape I have in that box. In fact, I could keep adding Washit tape layers as I purchase new rolls. It could be like a Washi Tape index on the outside!

Have you ever decorated a box like this? What materials did you use?Were you happy with the result? I'd love to see your project so do share it with me by posting it using the form below.

If you have not yet altered a box in your craft room, why not look around you and see if there is an undecorated surface just begging for some bling and paper and Washi tape?

If you do, I hope you will feel free to share your creation with me.

Now you may like to check out some other altered art work on PaperCraftCentral.com. Here are a few ideas:

• More information about Altered Art Itself
  
• Making Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) to swap with friends
• Altering littler things like Matchboxes