Art Weekend ~ Alter box with Kraft Paper

Yesterday my two friends came round for a day of creating an altered box. We were starting with cigar or cake boxes... but generally these were wooden boxes. After clearing and covering the dining room table we were off. The idea originated from the July 2012 edition of Craft Stamper. 

 

Loads of gesso covered the boxes and give plain background to work on.

 Here my box is drying while I wait to sand the edges to create a distress look  and add a touch of vintage photo distress ink to age the box on the edges.

 Now we could begin to tear strips of Kraft paper (Tim Holtz pad) to fit the sides before embossing them, rubbing over detress ink (walnut) and then adding just a little treasure gold. The kraft paper was mounted on to old book pages the edges peeking out. All the edges were rubbed with walnut ink before mounting on the side of the box.

Next is was time to consider the lid. Three layers were stacked, stitched together and then stamps added. The words in the lower left say "Alter your life".. We could now take some more Kraft paper to create tatty floral flowers. Dig into the boxes to find different object to decorate the lid. 

 Now before glueing the lid decoration completely down, we all wanted to add feet. Having wood boxes meant we could use pin tacks or nails ... Caroline's box ended up with skull feet. So cool ! A little surpise as you look round the box.

 Caroline and Lynn's  finished boxes.

 My finished box . The butterfly frame sits on a layer of lace. It is inspiring me to consider creating a fabric book on Butterflies to live in the box.

 At the end of the day - here are our three boxes all together.