I made this box for my good friend for Christmas, and placed some goodies inside...it was an old wooden cigar box I found at an antique shop and decided to cover it over with some images from this past year in fashion. I just tore up or cut up a bunch of old fashion magazines, and kept it black and white to keep things a little more visually striking.
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| top view of box lid |
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| i used pages from Vogue and some antique book pages |
I actually decopaged the whole box first, then used a utility knife to slit open the box around the edges, it made for a very clean design.
I love collage because it's very "user friendly", non-toxic, and usually yields a stunning result, even if you don't have a lot of artistic aptitude...just a cool way to personalize a gift. Decoupage is a pretty ancient technique with a fascinating history. The surrealists liked to play around with this too...
To make something like this, you'll need :
1) a wooden, cardboard, or paper box
2) Mod Podge (a kind of glue/sealer/sticky thing) and clear Acrylic sealing spray
3) old magazines, old papers, gift wrap, candy wrappers, old letters or whatever you want to use for decorating your box
4) a cheap paintbrush or one of those spongy paintbrushes for applying the glue/Mod Podge
tips:
-I coat both sides of the image before applying it to the box, with a thin layer of the Mod Podge ~ (then I use the paintbrush to coat the whole box with Mod Podge after I finish my design)
-I sometimes tear the pages/images instead of cutting with scissors for a more organic interesting texture
-I use an old credit card/library card to gently smooth down the applied paper pieces, working from the center of the image out.
-After you're finished, let the box dry completely (it dries pretty fast tho I waited overnight), then spray apply the clear acrylic sealant to the entire box (I worked outside on a piece of newspaper with this, as it gets pretty smelly/sticky - also helps to hold the can of spray about 10-12 inches away from the box and let it fall over it like a "mist" using quick short bursts of spray)
Let me know what you think! And if you decide to do your own box, leave me a link in the comments, and as always, thank you for reading x
