Upcycle Project - Cheese Box to Gift Box

“Have you laughed today?”  That’s the question that Laughing Cow cheese asks.  Hopefully, your answer is yes!  Laughing is so important…and in my world so is cheese.  Ha-ha-ha.  But what do you do with the box that these little yummy wedges come in.  In the past, I’ve tossed it into the recycle bin.  This time, I peeled off the labels and thought I’d play with it. 

There are two collage images from Altered Pages that I have been looking forward to using.  One is a dragon in flight and the other is a beautiful Oriental background in neutral colors.  I chose the Spiced Chai and Emerald City StazOn inks and copper Maya Mist spray.  I rubbed the entire box with the brown ink and then added some green here and there.  The box had labels on top, bottom and all around the side which left rough spots on the otherwise smooth cardboard.  This gave the box a rustic look once the ink was added and I loved it!  I sprayed the copper ink liberally on both halves.  It’s a gorgeous color full of sheen!  When the ink was dry I sealed both pieces with a workable fixative to seal the mist.

 

The lid of the box has a slight lip so I measured the inner circle and cut the background using my circle cutter set to 4”.  The background was rectangular so I did not get a complete circle.  I tore the straight edge off to give it a little texture.  I added brown and green ink to the edges of the circle and to the torn area.  The scrap had two visible patterns so I cut them out, inked the edges and glued them to the background before gluing the dragon in place.

The inside of the box was white cardboard and I painted it very lightly with dark brown paint.  Be conservative because the box needs to close so you don’t want a thick layer.  My largest scalloped circle die was perfect to make a bottom for the box.

The dragon comes as part of a scene so I cut him out and touched up the white edges with a marker.  The head, body and tail of the dragon were glued directly to the background and his wings were lifted with double sided foam adhesive.  The disc was then glued in place on the lid.

Our July partner is Leaky Shed Studios and this medallion embellishment was perfect for my design!  But the square shape didn’t work for my round project.  I sponged green ink onto the entire medallion and then sponged brown around the edges.  Then I ripped it in half!  I sponged brown ink onto the rips.  To help it stand out, the floral designs on the tips were dipped into gold ink. 

Once the medallion pieces were in place I added some strings of pearls, stopping at the base of each one.

 

 

And there you have it!  A pretty little gift box, perfect for a gift card, jewelry or even M&Ms!  Thanks for stopping by to check out my upcycle project!  I hope you'll take a moment to check out the Leaky Shed Studios site.