Labels

Tutorial Tuesday: Painted Shoebox

If you've been reading my blog for a little while, then you know that I love to craft using inexpensive items, or reusing "unusable" items.  I had Matt get down my fall decor box last week because I wanted to decorate, but upon opening the box I realized that there was very little in the box.  So I set out to make some more decorations that would cost me very little.  I really enjoy painting even though I am really not that good at it (my sister, Bethany on the other hand...UH-mazing!!!), but I didn't want to buy canvases, because again...I'm cheap.  My next option was shoeboxes, which are similar thickness to canvases.  I went to Target and picked up a few stray lids that the shoe lady said I could have, stopped at Hobby Lobby (yay) for some paint, and set to work on this super fun project!! 


Here is what you'll need:


Materials:
Shoe boxes, tops and bottoms
Paint brushes
Acrylic paint (I wanted fall colors, so I used marigold, burnt orange, burgundy, dark chocolate, and antique white for the base)

Paint the box with a top coat of your lightest color to help cover any colors, pictures or logos that may be on the box (take off any tags that might be on the box before you start painting).  Allow the base coat to dry completely, and paint over with your desired color, allow to dry.

For patterns on the box you can use stencils, cookie cutters, or paper that you've cut out, and trace around it onto the box.  Paint inside the pattern and allow to dry, you can also free hand any patterns you want.  To give your picture a line effect like I did on my pumpkin, use the back of the paint brush and pull it across on the wet paint.

Here are a few examples of the ones I did:
The pumpkin is on a square lid, and the chevron pattern is on a square box, so the pattern is painted on the other sides as well.
All of these are on rectangle lid, with the words being on an adult shoe box lid, making it a bit bigger.

I love the little bit extra they add, it's just so pretty.  That Mickey Mouse pumpkin in the bottom left is my favorite fall decoration!!  Matt bought him for me at Disneyland when we lived in LA and went all the time (miss those days).

I think this would be a great alternative for kids art, they could repaint them for every season!  

I'm linking up with:




Email Post
Labels:

Comments

  1. JocelynOctober 12, 2011 at 3:52 PM

    Absolutely love crafting without it costing me a fortune...or maybe my husband cares more about that.. Thanks for a project we can both live with!

    Newest follower...visiting from Night Owl Crafting...

    Please stop by http://caramelpotatoes.com and join our give away.

    Jocelyn @ caramelpotatoes.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Blissful & DomesticOctober 15, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    These are so dang fasntastic! I love it!! Thanks for linking up and sharing:>

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emma @ Our Whimsical DaysMay 9, 2016 at 3:36 AM

    What a creative idea! And thanks so much for the tutorial - I've been looking for how to paint on shoeboxes and yours was the first post I found to describe the process. I can't wait to try it - this would be so much cheaper than canvas!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts