I'm so happy to be participating in the 99+ Handmade Gift Ideas Holiday Blog Hop, hosted by 365 Days of Crafts. One of my favorite handmade gifts is a painted treasure box. It's the gift and the box all in one! But of course, you still need to tuck at least a little something inside when you give a treasure box, like how grandma always put a dollar inside the wallet she gave you.
This box is also my sample for a free class I'm teaching at the Concord Library this Saturday, November 29th (10:30am - 12:30pm). If you're local, please join us!
I like treating the lid of the box like a little canvas. I usually use paper maché boxes, but plain wood boxes are great too. I painted a coat of off-white to cover the natural kraft color first, so the colors I use on top would pop more. Then I sponge-painted light green, with a darker green distressed around the edge of the lid. You can paint the inside as well, or line it with pretty paper.
I stamped flowers on top and added a few buttons. "Believe" is a wood embellishment that I painted first with a dark plum, then smudged and wiped a little green and white on top.
The most fun part of making treasure boxes is the embellishing. In my book, Craft Your Stash, one of the projects is a silver metallic box with lots of metal charms, beads and a vintage brooch on the top. You can also have fun blending texture medium into the paint like I did for this crown star box. You can really go to town with pretty layered die-cut shapes, like I did on this gold dress form box.
Be sure to enter to win an Amazon Gift Card below, and keep scrolling down to visit all the other designers' blogs to see what kinds of gift ideas they have to share. Forget about Black Friday at the mall with all the crazy traffic and crowds - stay home and craft right through your whole gift list instead! Live handmade, baby!
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