Category: Quote

Trinket Box

7/26/2021

I don't know if you saw my post on making Harry Potter wands but they were pretty awesome sauce if I do say so myself! The box I used for them came from a gentleman at work who likes to give me random things to use for my crafts. Well, he gave me some of the same style of box but they were double the width (if that makes sense). So I had to come up with something to do with them! I have a lot, so it will take a few different crafts to use them up, but, to start, I came up with this simply pretty trinket box!

Supplies I used:

Cardboard box
Book pages
Mod Podge
Paint brush for glue
Scrapbook pages
Scissors
Printed quote
Vinyl/fabric piece
Various embellishments

I had some of our staff at work help me with the prep for these. I had them paint the outside and inside of the lid as well as the inside of the box white. I did this because I knew the paper I was going to be using on the top wouldn't completely cover the green and I thought was a little too much to show through and thought white would be a softer choice.

If you noticed, I didn't say the outside of the bottom part of the box. That is because I used a decoupage method with book paper to cover it instead! I ripped up pieces of old book pages that were nice and yellow looking! Then I put a think layer of mod podge on the box, section by section, and laid the pages into the glue. I brushed over the pages as well to make sure they stuck to to the box completely. I also covered the bottom of the box completely with book pages as well.

Next, I chose a few different types of scrapbook paper that had fun and bright patterns. I measured and cut them into pieces that could be quickly glued onto the different areas. I started with the inside of the box, as I figured that'd be the easiest, and again, laid down some mod podge to glue the paper on. I had this cool vinyl fabric (also from my donating buddy) which on the back had a soft fluffy backing and decided I wanted that for the inside of my box. I glued this down with hot glue to make sure it stayed in place unless someone purposely rips it out!

I decided to cover the outside and inside of the lid with two different types of paper which I thought was really fun. If you attempt this project or something similar, make sure when you glue paper down that you get the air bubbles out and really smooth it out with something! It will settle better when it dries verses what it looks like when wet!

The next part is the really fun part! So, I did this for a virtual work program. This means that I made up prepacked "craft kits" that the participants picked up ahead of time. This included the box, soft vinyl, quote pieces, and embellishments. The quote I made for the box reads, "wherever life plants you, bloom with grace". I ended up adding another quote for the side of the box that read, "be humble and kind". I wanted these to be a little bit nicer than just gluing copy paper on the box, so I first glued them to a thin matt board and cut them out. Adding changes like this adds depth and texture to projects! The embellishments I included in the boxes ranged from all sorts of mismatched stuff such as: buttons, lace, ribbon, floral leaves, jewels, stickers, clip art, broken jewelry, feathers, etc. People are also always encouraged to add things they may have at home too.

I laid out my quote pieces until I had them where I thought I liked them and glued them down with hot glue. I then started playing with my embellishment pieces. I have to say... this was shockingly hard! I could not decide where I wanted things and kept moving items back and forth and back again! Slowly, I started feeling happier with what I picked out for each item and began gluing them down, although apprehensively!

Essentially, to finish the box up, just keep fenagling with it until you feel happy! You can also always add more items later too, especially if you have something that is uniquely special in some way. Thanks for reading & crafting!

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Altered Book Journal Page

9/5/2019

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Let me start by saying anything... and I mean anything can be used for an altered book journal! This is what makes this project so much fun and so versatile. Every book is different, every page is different, and every material is different. The purpose of an "altered book" is making an old book into a new piece of art. There are many types of altered books, but for this project, we are beginning an altered book "journal". A journal can be used as a "smash book" for travel or random memories or can be used for a literal journal to write in. There are many possibilities.

I did this journal page spread for one of my classes. This was a little tricky as I had to come up with something that we could all do together in our own books but something that could get everyone started and get those creative gears moving! The page above is what I came up with. It is something very simple and uses minimal supplies. We could've gone crazy and used paints, textures, inks, stamps, stickers, etc. but I kept it simple for an easy clean up and to also show that you don't need anything fancy for this type of project!

Supplies:

Paper (scrapbook and scrap)
Printed Clip Art image
Printed text in a fun font
Ribbon
Elmer's Glue
Scrapbooking flowers
Hot Glue Gun
Xacto Knife

1. First off, let's talk about picking our book. If you can find something with "sewn" pages, that's the way to go! The modern glued pages are terrible for an altered book project! They are too flimsy and as you cut away more pages it loses its stability and could fall apart! These photos show what a sewn spine looks like verses a glued spine.

2. To start with, we need to "prep" our book. Everybody goes about this in different ways, but, for me, I go through and remove pages throughout the book. The more "stuff" you want to add to your book = the more pages you want to cut out. I use an Xacto knife to cut out a page. Then flip a couple of pages and cut another out. Keep going until you feel happy, at least for the time being. Make sure there are pages to the right and left of the cut section to glue together and cover up the cut page. You'll end up with quite a few lose pages (you could save these for future projects!).

3. Once you are done cutting out pages throughout the book, you are ready to start gluing. As mentioned above, glue the pages to the left and right of the cut together, hiding that cut line. I use Mod Podge for this, putting it on in an even, thin layer. You can always come back and add more if the corners aren't glued down after it dries.

4. The next step is where things start becoming "optional". What I like to do to "prep" a page, is to paint a layer of white gesso on the spread. Gesso gives a nice foundation for the rest of the items you will add. It also slightly covers the words or "greys" them out so you can still see them but you can also see your work! The page we are doing is pretty bare, you can still see the Gesso effect in the very first image on this post.

5. For this step, gather the supplies/items you want to use for your page.

I want to go over what I used for mine. The "Let your soul grow" quote was printed on a regular printer on antiqued paper. The bike was also printed on the same printer on regular copy paper. I tore some scrapbook paper to fit into the corners of the page (if you tear away/toward you = different results!). I had some spare scrapbooking flowers to use up and I also used some pieces of ribbon. Remember, I tried to keep this page spread very easy and user friendly!

6. All I did to finish this page spread up was glue! First, I arranged everything on the pages to figure out where I wanted it all to go. Once I was good with it all I glued everything down with a thin layer of Elmer's Glue, you could use Mod Podge instead. I also used the hot glue gun to glue the ribbon and the flowers down. But that was it!

This was a pretty simple page. But you could really get crazy and do pages like the examples below! Happy Journaling!

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Trinket Box

Altered Book Journal Page

Rebecca Myers

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