Upcycled Gift Box
/It's really simple to give an old gift box a new look with just a magazine and some glue.
If you are a 'keeper' like me you will have a small stash of little boxes that are just too good to throw away! Maybe they had jewellery, a watch, a mug or new gadget in them, some packaging is just too good to just throw out ... and here is an easy way to make it pretty.
What you need is:
An old box, this one had jewellery in it originally
An old magazine or seed catalogue
Mod Podge or similar pva glue
A craft knife (you could use scissors at a push but a craft knife will make it easier)
A brush for the glue
Select a suitable image from the magazine, my magazine was last month's Mollie Makes which had these gorgeous paper flowers in it. Rip the page out and then using a craft knife cut out the image.
Be fairly careful but you don't have to be mega precise, especially if the flowers have wiggly petals like these. Do a few flowers if you can, options are nice!
Now experiment for a moment selecting which image fits best on your box. I wanted to cover the marks and the writing on mine of course so turning the box sideways helped with the flower placement.
Cover the top of the box with a thin layer of Mod Podge, apply the flower then cover with another layer of the glue. It will crease or air bubble a little, that's ok. Smooth it with the brush as best you can but don't overdo it. Magazine paper is pretty thin and you don't want to rip it.
You can see that a little of the stem went over the edge of the box here, I think that's a nice detail. You just glue that down in exactly the same way.
Just leave it to dry and ta-dah! You are done. What a pretty gift box you have made.
I loved this so much I found a few more bits & pieces to stick my magazine paper cut outs onto.
I covered the foam inside the old jewellery box with a little matching fabric too, just to make it more pretty.
I love the big bold flowers on the dark background especially. I think I'll start saving seed catalogues for more big floral cut outs.
I used more flowers cut out from magazines to decorate another type of box for gifting, check that out here: Floral gift box from upcycled magazines
You can use a similar technique to make pretty greeting cards too.
Julie
I’ll be sharing this idea at these link ups
