DIY Wooden Keepsake Boxes

Hi Everyone! This is a craft I did for my sister. She travels so much and I wanted to give her something to keep her memories in. She is a photographer (see her work at http://www.meganlovephotography.com/) so I knew she didn't need any photo albums. She's way better at that stuff than I am so I left that up to the professional. But what about the fun little things you pick up along the way that might be too awkward to fit in an album? A napkin from your favorite French cafe, a match box from the first English Pub you visited? Your train ticket traveling to Germany? I don't know, I have never been to any of those places. However, I wanted to give her something handmade by ME her loving awesome sister ;) and thus this tutorial was born.

What You Will Need:

• A Wooden Box
• Multi Surface Paint (at least two different colors - I used four)
• Stencils (alphabet and designs)
• Glue
• Paint brushes and mini paint rollers
• Corner Posts

The first step is to paint your box - I painted a section of blue first and the laid the stencil above over the blue once it had dried and painted the rest of the box brown (I did this at both ends on the lid and on both sides of the box). When I peeled the stencil off it showed the blue underneath perfectly.

This is the box mostly painted brown with the blue underneath showing through.

 

Once the brown paint had dried I put a different stencil over the brown paint and used a cream color to cover the brown. I was experimenting with different ways to use stencils and which ones work better and which ones I like better. The overlain stencils are much easier and less messy than the underlain ones, but they both produce fun and nice looking results.

 

 

Then I used stickable alphabet stencils to spell out words. I had fun with the paint and I used Martha Stewart Brand multi surface paint.

 

The next thing I did was to glue the corner posts to the bottom of the box while the lid was drying. I let the glue dry over night and then I had the finished product :)

 

 

I added embellishments to the lid. I painted a wooden birdcage to match the colors of the box and I added some buttons and jewels.

A few days later I was still feeling crafty so after giving myself a mani/pedi and playing with some henna, I decided to make another box for myself. This time I added some paper flowers and experimented for the first time with crackle paint. There are so many different things you can do with these. The possibilities are literally endless! Have fun making your keepsake boxes!