Repurposing: Upcycled Cigar Box Tea Storage II

 

I mentioned in another post that there was a part II and here it is. While I was busy ordering a special tea for Mr. Chocolate, little did I know that a sweet friend who'd taken a trip to London with her family last year, would be sending us a wonderful assortment of teas from there! Natch, they needed storage befitting their origin.

Supplies:

• Cigar Box
• Acrylic Paints
• Vinyl
• Digital Images
• Crown Embellishment

As I mentioned in my other post, I get my cigar boxes from Total Wine. They're usually on a wall behind the registers. Just take them to the register. 

We might live in the Copper State but it's also a Turquoise State with several turquoise mines so this is an homage to that, plus I love the color! I sanded over the parts of the label I couldn't remove and then painted with Waverly No Prep Paint in Lagoon. I painted the inside edges in case my paper calculations were off. 

The upside to being a paper hoarder, I mean having an extensive scrapbook paper collection, is you have papers for every color project! I chose this marbled paper (Recollections) with gold foiling for my interior, measured, cut, and then applied using Mod Podge Matte. 

Once the inside was done, I dry brushed some white and gold paints on the exterior and then gathered my embellishments. I found a tea sentiment and teapot in Cricut Design Space, cut those from black and gold vinyl as shown, and chose a metal crown from a pack I bought at a stamping show.

I positioned and applied my vinyl, then using Loctite Gel Superglue, applied the crown.

The box had an oval shape engraved in it and debated about covering it with paper but I decided it made a good frame for the crown. 

So that's the story of Tea Box I and Tea Box II and we will each enjoy many tea times to come!

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Repurposing: Upcycled Cigar Box to Tea Storage I

 

As much as I may ever joke about my Iced Mocha addiction, we drink a LOT of tea in this house. On a trip last year, the place we stayed had this tea Mr. Chocolate fell in love with. It turned out to be something that had to be specially ordered so I got him a big box for Christmas and it literally came in a cardboard box. Well, that wouldn't do! I have a stash of cigar boxes and knew they were perfect for this project. And stay tuned because there will be a part two I'll share this week.

Supplies:

• Wood Cigar Box (Total Wine sells these for cheap!)
• Acrylic Paint
• Scrapbook Paper
• Mod Podge (I used Matte)
• Vinyl
• Embellishments

Although I haven't gotten any recently, I think Total Wine still sells their empty cigar boxes. I've gotten them for as little as $.99. You can also sometimes get wood crates and other boxes too. These have run me $4-5. 

I grabbed one I had in my stash, sanded any rough edges and then painted using Waverly No Prep Acrylic Paint in Truffle. 

Love this paint so much! I kept the outside pretty simple because Mr. Chocolate is the opposite of me when it comes to blinging things up!

I measured the scrapbook paper I chose (and yes, when I applied it I had a little gap but it'll be covered by tea so...) and used Mod Podge Matte to glue it inside the box. Then I taped off the bottom and went around the edges with silver. 

I chose silver vinyl (Cricut) and an image from Cricut Design Space, sized and cut.

I placed it on top of the box to make sure it was well positioned and then applied using my scraper. To finish, I found some self-adhesive metal studs. 

I let the vinyl design be my guide to where I placed them and applied them until I was satisfied. 

Of course these bougie tea bags are slightly larger than normal so I had to rearrange to close but the most important thing is, Mr. Chocolate loves his box! 

I mentioned there's a part two coming. It was a very Tea Christmas! Stay tuned.

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Blogiversary Giveaway #2: Cigar Box Full of Goodies to Alter It With

Don't forget I have a giveaway from My Memories Suite going here.  

This giveaway is sponsored by : ME. My readers know that I love to alter things. I'm also really lucky to have a husband who gets that, and does things like bring  home cigar boxes for me to play with. I have seen them for sale at up to 10 times what he's gotten them for. SO ...I want to give one away to one lucky reader. 

I think I read somewhere( or just made up in my head) that it's bad luck to give away an empty box. What fun would it be to have a cigar box to alter without anything to alter it with anyway?  One reader will get a box filled with some of my favorite goodies to play with. Want to see? 

There are rub-ons and embellishments and washi tape oh my! Couldn't resist including a mini paper mache dress form too. 

Here's the top of the box (some places I've found cigar boxes rip off the lid but this lid is fully in tact which makes this a great place to store bits and pieces) You can use as is, cover it, or incorporate the design into your altered vision. 

And the box itself is a nice cedar ( I think ..but it's some kind of wood!). So in keeping with my history of "craftsplaining" um no, I don't smoke cigars but I sure do love the boxes they come in! Who wants it? (Gonna have to limit this to US only because ....postage)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Beachy and Botanical Altered Cigar Box

I wanted something special to hold the earring and bracelet sets I shared in my previous post.

Not long ago, Mr. Chocolate came home with several empty cigar boxes for me ( and came home with MORE again this week!)  I grabbed one of them and got to work.

For this project you will need:

• Cigar or wood box to alter
• Paint ( I used Ceramcoat Paradise and Martha Stewart Wedding Cake)
• Decorative papers (I used a piece of scrapbook paper and some washi paper I collect but rarely ever use)
• Embellishments (I used botanical rub ons by K&Co, postage themed tag stickers, self adhesive copper frame, and coordinating washi tape)
• Mod Podge
• Clear drying dimensional glue

I started by painting the edges of my box with the beachy blue ( Paradise). I didn't sand or remove any of the paper that's on top of the wood. I liked the texture. Just painted right over it.

After that was dry, I dry brushed it with the white paint. I was going for a weathered beachy feel.

I measured my scrapbook paper ( top, bottom, and inside lid) and the washi paper ( sides) and then applied them to the box with Mod Podge. Added scraps of the washi paper to the corners of the top and then added the postal tag stickers and botanical rub-ons.

For the focal point of my box, I used the brochure from the hotel owned by the recipients. Placed an adhesive copper frame over the section I wanted to feature and added some super glue to get it really good and stuck. Trimmed using an XActo knife and filled with clear dimensional adhesive to give it a 3-D  look.

Ooops I got a bubble in there but oh well. If you catch those before your glue is dry, you can pop them with a pin. Once the glue was dry, I superglued it to the top of the box.

I finished up the box by applying the same scrapbook paper to the inside of the lid, added more washi tape and a couple more of the rub ons.

The owners of the hotel are avid gardeners so I thought beachy and  botanical worked out.

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Mr. Chocolate's Birthday: Altered Cigar Box

Mr. Chocolate recently had a birthday and I made him an altered cigar box as part of his gift. He actually contributed to his own present because one day he came back from Total Wine with a bunch of cigar boxes he’d found there for $1.50 ea. I was thrilled since when I’ve tried to buy these at different places they’ve been anywhere from $5-$10 ea. Ridic.

Here’s my “before” cigar box. Can’t stand the smell of cigars, but love the boxes. Luckily the empty boxes don’t smell.  I panted the edges of my box in black and then Mod Podged coordinating papers onto the box.

I used a different paper for the inside of the lid.

And went around the edges with coordinating washi tape. I wanted a vintage 1920’s feel and was thrilled when I found this Susan Lenart Kazmer antique license plate pendant on sale for $2.99 at Michaels.

I loved it as it was but wanted it to coordinate better with my color scheme so painted it with black acrylic paint and then went over it with silver Rub n Buff .

I stamped an antique car and sentiment (Tim Holtz) onto a torn dictionary page and distressed it with Ranger Distress inks. Mod Podged that onto the lid and added some coordinating chipboard stickers I’d found at Michaels (Recollections). Added a watch charm I’d also found at Michaels.

I’ll share the other parts of his present in an upcoming post.