MV Articles - Altering Priority Shipping Boxes

**Shipping Boxes**
Altering Priority Shipping Boxes... by jennifer santos-hamer ~ click to enlarge~ Supplies: MV Shipping Box – It's free (with an MV order)! It's the perfect size to store 12x12 papers! Recycling is good for the environment! And best of all it's free! Dremel Tool – I used a Dremel tool with the cutting disks to get a clean, smooth cut on the box. DeAcidification Spray – Cardboard is highly acidic by nature. You'll want to deacidify this for any type of long term storage. I use Krylon Make It Acid Free Spray, found at Michaels. Gesso – Gesso is a super-thick paint that you can find in the fine art section at Michaels. It's useful for many projects because it quickly and easily primes surfaces (paper or canvas) and really covers up the high-contrast colors better than craft acrylic paints. You can also build up textures, lighten colors, and mix your pigment powders (PearleX) into it. **You can also do several coats of acrylic paint or skip the gesso part if you plan to completely cover your box with paper. Ruler Pencil Measure approximately 5 inches along one narrow side and draw a line straight across. This will be your insert side. Draw a curve along one long side of the box, from your insert side point, across the long side, to the top. Begin cutting your lines, stopping at the opposing long side, and trimming off the edges. Take your cut-out edges and place the curved section over the other side. Trace the curve, ensuring it is aligned with your narrow side points. Cut. You should now have your basic shape. To deacidify your box, apply deacidification spray over all inner surfaces. For extra caution, you can spray the outside as well. It should dry within a minute or two. To prime (make a plain white base for embellishment) your box, apply 1-2 coats of gesso. You can coat the bottom as well, but I skip this part as no one will see it. One coat of gesso dries very quickly – within ten minutes. You can skip this part if you plan to cover your box with patterned papers. You are now ready to embellish as you'd like! Patterned Paper Covered Box: 3 sheets of 12x12 pattern paper for the top 1 sheet of 12x12 contrasting pattern paper for the striped bottom Mod Podge (preferably Matte) Acrylic Paint (to coat the inside) Wide ribbon or wide strip of patterned paper Paper trimmer Scissors Place your first sheet of floral paper on the box, adjacent to the short side, pattern up, and trace the curves. Cut. Repeat for the second side. Adhere with Mod-Podge. Cut or tear the top curved edge every 3-4 inches to allow the paper to fold over flat. You will have approximately 1/2 inch of uncovered edge on some sides. The spines on both the long edge and insert edge are approximately 2.75 inches across. Cut a strips about 3.25 inches across to allow a slight overlap. Or collage leftover pieces from the first two sheets of paper to fit the spines. For the bottom striped edge, Mod Podge strips of paper across the bottom for a border. Affix a wide ribbon or wide strip of patterned paper where the papers meet, all the way around the box. Affix ribbon with strong glue – I used E6000 glue for Ani's scrap box. (Because my boxes sit side by side on my bookshelf, I would keep the long sides relatively flat and reserve really lumpy embellishments for the narrow sides.) Other techniques shown with boxes: White-wash painting: You can tone down any paper by gently dry brushing over it with white paint. To white-wash these papers, I used a huge paint brush, dabbed it in white paint, dabbed the brush on a paper towel, and then painted over the paper until I got the effect I wanted. Large daisy petal centers: Place the epoxy sticker over a circle sticker or die cut. Because my stickers were a little bit smaller than the needed center, I added mini-brads around the circle. Altered Letter Stickers: Place letter stickers on wax paper first. Paint gently (you don't want to get too much paint between the stickers and wax paper or they may stick to the wax and need to be trimmed down), allow to dry, and apply as usual. Folded, Stemmed Flowers: The stems are simply ribbons adhered to the box with glue. The folded flowers are Heidi Swapp Large flowers folded into fourths. To affix the flowers, I added glue to the petal area and heart-shaped brads to the pointed end. Altered Ribbon Slide -- Dab paint into the engraved words on your slide, gently wipe away the top layer that you'd like to keep metallic. Straight Edge Box: A straight edge box is definitely much easier. The "Warm CS" box is a straight-edge box. I simply cut down with a knife, deacidified and primed it, then decorated it with paint and Heidi Swapp Hibiscus Stamps. The knife cuts are not as straight as with a Dremel tool, but the box still works well for my warm cardstock storage. Collage Box: I still use my first altered box. I wanted storage and also wanted to show off some of my favorite papers -- Basic Grey's Motifica and Sublime Papers and 7gypsies Journey papers. I mod-podged my favorite papers on until I was happy with the colors. I went a little nuts on the Tim Holtz Walnut Stain ink – I should have used Antique Linen and just accented with Walnut Stain, but the experimentation is part of the fun. J Extra coats of mod-podge were added to ensure the paper wasn't going anywhere. Just about anything can be altered into something pretty and useful utilizing your favorite supplies. MV's Idea Gallery contains examples of several fun altered projects to make use of favorite supplies, to give as gifts, or to try unconventional memory arts sizes. MV's Idea Books and DVDs section also contains several books and DVDs for more great projects. ~see my gallery~ ~my personal page~

Shipping Boxes

Altering Priority Shipping Boxes... by jennifer santos-hamer

~ click to enlarge~

Supplies:

MV Shipping Box – It's free (with an MV order)! It's the perfect size to store 12x12 papers! Recycling is good for the environment! And best of all it's free!

Dremel Tool – I used a Dremel tool with the cutting disks to get a clean, smooth cut on the box.

DeAcidification Spray – Cardboard is highly acidic by nature. You'll want to deacidify this for any type of long term storage. I use Krylon Make It Acid Free Spray, found at Michaels.

Gesso – Gesso is a super-thick paint that you can find in the fine art section at Michaels. It's useful for many projects because it quickly and easily primes surfaces (paper or canvas) and really covers up the high-contrast colors better than craft acrylic paints. You can also build up textures, lighten colors, and mix your pigment powders (PearleX) into it. **You can also do several coats of acrylic paint or skip the gesso part if you plan to completely cover your box with paper.

Ruler

Pencil

Measure approximately 5 inches along one narrow side and draw a line straight across. This will be your insert side.
Draw a curve along one long side of the box, from your insert side point, across the long side, to the top.
Begin cutting your lines, stopping at the opposing long side, and trimming off the edges.
Take your cut-out edges and place the curved section over the other side. Trace the curve, ensuring it is aligned with your narrow side points. Cut. You should now have your basic shape.
To deacidify your box, apply deacidification spray over all inner surfaces. For extra caution, you can spray the outside as well. It should dry within a minute or two.
To prime (make a plain white base for embellishment) your box, apply 1-2 coats of gesso. You can coat the bottom as well, but I skip this part as no one will see it. One coat of gesso dries very quickly – within ten minutes. You can skip this part if you plan to cover your box with patterned papers.

You are now ready to embellish as you'd like!

Patterned Paper Covered Box:

3 sheets of 12x12 pattern paper for the top
1 sheet of 12x12 contrasting pattern paper for the striped bottom
Mod Podge (preferably Matte)
Acrylic Paint (to coat the inside)
Wide ribbon or wide strip of patterned paper
Paper trimmer
Scissors

Place your first sheet of floral paper on the box, adjacent to the short side, pattern up, and trace the curves. Cut. Repeat for the second side. Adhere with Mod-Podge. Cut or tear the top curved edge every 3-4 inches to allow the paper to fold over flat. You will have approximately 1/2 inch of uncovered edge on some sides.
The spines on both the long edge and insert edge are approximately 2.75 inches across. Cut a strips about 3.25 inches across to allow a slight overlap. Or collage leftover pieces from the first two sheets of paper to fit the spines.
For the bottom striped edge, Mod Podge strips of paper across the bottom for a border.
Affix a wide ribbon or wide strip of patterned paper where the papers meet, all the way around the box. Affix ribbon with strong glue – I used E6000 glue for Ani's scrap box.
(Because my boxes sit side by side on my bookshelf, I would keep the long sides relatively flat and reserve really lumpy embellishments for the narrow sides.)

Other techniques shown with boxes:

White-wash painting: You can tone down any paper by gently dry brushing over it with white paint. To white-wash these papers, I used a huge paint brush, dabbed it in white paint, dabbed the brush on a paper towel, and then painted over the paper until I got the effect I wanted.
Large daisy petal centers: Place the epoxy sticker over a circle sticker or die cut. Because my stickers were a little bit smaller than the needed center, I added mini-brads around the circle.
Altered Letter Stickers: Place letter stickers on wax paper first. Paint gently (you don't want to get too much paint between the stickers and wax paper or they may stick to the wax and need to be trimmed down), allow to dry, and apply as usual.
Folded, Stemmed Flowers: The stems are simply ribbons adhered to the box with glue. The folded flowers are Heidi Swapp Large flowers folded into fourths. To affix the flowers, I added glue to the petal area and heart-shaped brads to the pointed end.
Altered Ribbon Slide -- Dab paint into the engraved words on your slide, gently wipe away the top layer that you'd like to keep metallic.

Straight Edge Box:

A straight edge box is definitely much easier. The "Warm CS" box is a straight-edge box. I simply cut down with a knife, deacidified and primed it, then decorated it with paint and Heidi Swapp Hibiscus Stamps. The knife cuts are not as straight as with a Dremel tool, but the box still works well for my warm cardstock storage.

Collage Box:

I still use my first altered box. I wanted storage and also wanted to show off some of my favorite papers -- Basic Grey's Motifica and Sublime Papers and 7gypsies Journey papers. I mod-podged my favorite papers on until I was happy with the colors. I went a little nuts on the Tim Holtz Walnut Stain ink – I should have used Antique Linen and just accented with Walnut Stain, but the experimentation is part of the fun. J Extra coats of mod-podge were added to ensure the paper wasn't going anywhere.

~see my gallery~
~my personal page~