This was a project that I had started a while back and like many projects was placed on the back burner for some time. I was inspired by the Faery Swap on Craftster to drag it out and finish it up.
I have always held a special place in my heart for flower faeries. I love growing herbs and flowers in my various gardens and feel a connection to the flower fae.
I had a bunch of cheap cigar type boxes laying around for years. And had no idea what to use them for. It wasn't until I received a few birthday cards with faeries on them that I knew exactly what to use one for.
Box before trinket box transformation
I had a bunch of cheap cigar type boxes laying around for years. And had no idea what to use them for. It wasn't until I received a few birthday cards with faeries on them that I knew exactly what to use one for.
To start, I cut off the top of the box with a craft knife like so. I did this to make it easier to handle, decorate and position it where I wanted when it came to reassembly.
After cutting off the lid, I used a scrap piece of sand paper to lightly rough up the surfaces. If you are using an unfinished box, you shouldn't have to rough the surfaces for paint (you are more than welcomed to do so if you wish). Being that mine was covered with a glossy type paper, I needed to rough it up so the paint would adhere better. You can also use paper to cover the surfaces of your box if you like.
After all the surfaces that are going to be painted are sanded down, I brushed off the dust and set about painting. Because I didn't have in process pictures of my original box, I am making another one as I go. I used acrylic craft paint and brushed on a few coats, letting each coat fully dry in between. This box only needed 2 coats. Depending on your paint or the kind of coverage you want, more coats might be needed.
TIP: It helps when painting to alternate your paint strokes for each coat of paint you put on. Doing so gives a better coverage and looks smoother after it's all painted.
Once your background is how you like, it's time to embellish! Embellishments can be anything you want. For my trinket box below, I used greeting cards, tissue paper, ribbons, lace, paint, sequins, stickers, rub-on transfers, fabric flowers, seed beads, glitter, and polymer clay. In general, I used a regular white glue to glue everything onto the box. Before attaching the 3 dimentional elements to the box, I brushed a thin coat of white glue over all the paper elements to seal them. For the 3D elements (beads, flowers, ribbons including the ribbons for the hinges, polymer clay pieces), I used E6000.
TIP: If using lace, depending on the type you use, you may or may not have to use a strong glue to glue it down. The lace I used was thin enough I was able to use the white glue.
Just keep placing your embellishments where you would like them to be and keep covering the box until you have your desired look. It's that simple!
In the above picture you can see the little "feet" that have been attached. I used some plastic beads my grandmother had given me. They are snowflake beads with a round faceted one glued together then glued to the box. I originally used hot glue for the feet. But after they popped off the bottom, I went back in with my E6000 glue and reattached. They haven't come off yet!
After all your embellishing is finished, it's time to reattached the lid to the box. This was done using a wide ribbon and gluing half onto the lid and the other half onto the box. I moved the lid slightly forward to give a nice lip in order to open the box easily.
I also made sure to glue another piece of wide ribbon to the inside to help reinforce the hinge, making sure to just glue the lid and base and NOT the hinge itself so that it will remain movable. For the bottom, I cut and glued down a piece of scrapbook paper. You can also embellish the inside lid if you like, but for my faery box, I left it plain black. Maybe I'll go back and embellish it, but for now I like it as it is.
Happy Crafting!
~K.Michele
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