One More Altered Box

Simple card made from the art on a side piece of the Yorkshire Gold Tea box. With more thought and time, embellishments could be added to make the card elaborate.

Two tags made from parts of that box.

This is a side by side picture of the original box front and the altered front. I decided to put it on this same post for now.

Altering this box that contained tea bags was a lot easier than any other kind of altering, because all it took was a few scraps and pictures glued strategically on the advertising. I liked the paintings on the sides, and wanted them to show. It is Yorkshire Gold tea from Taylors of Harrogate, so I think the painting is the scenery in the Yorkshire Dales.

Since it is to be filled with handmade letter paper and a pen and envelopes, the word "write" is placed on one of the scrap pieces and glued on top of a circular piece of glitter paper. Someone who owns a large hole-puncher made these circles for me.

Top of the box, although not very focused.

This is sturdy corrugated box for mandarin oranges, and it seemed much too useful to throw out. I was using it as-is, to carry things around the house to put away, or serve glasses of cold drinks to save steps back and forth. I got the idea to decorate it and put a towel in it to transport some fragrant herbal tea with the daily mail. I like this as a tray because the sides are higher than normal and nothing will slide off.

This is the original box. I have no craft room or table, so I carry what I need in this box. That way, any clippings or glitter falls into this area and not all over the place. I go get what I need from a storage area--scissors, glue, papers, and put it in the box . I first traced around it on black construction paper.

This is part of the kitchen so far. It extends a few more feet, all looking the same. It is good that the cabinets and sink delivery was delayed due to the holidays, for we found another leak in the wall and one that appears to be coming up from the floor and forming a stream to another room. At this point, we do not know what we will do.

This is an altered box idea I have been wanting to try. I have always liked the cardboard suitcase storage boxes you can buy, and have looked them over carefully to see how they work.

Someone left a frozen pie box at a potluck and I took it home. First, I rounded off the front corners with scissors, and bent the loose cardboard around, taping it with masking tape. It takes more patience to fiddle with this, so if you tend to get frustrated, keep the box square and work with it that way instead.

I pasted a higher strip of cardboard inside the lower edge, all around, so that it was about half an inch higher than the edges. This was to rest the top part of the lid on, just like the designer boxes are constructed. Masking tape is great for creating the curves and edges that you need, and it builds up over any mistakes.

Wrapping paper adhered better than any other kind of paper, and the cheaper paper worked better than the high quality paper. I folded it around to the inside and glued it all down with white glue.

Here is the inside, lined, with two holes punched on each side, into which wired ribbon was inserted for handles. It does not matter if this project ends up a little wrinkled from the glue. It is just a free box that would have been thrown away anyway.

Here is the primitive first layer of this suitcase box. I made the curves by tracing the original square box on a piece of old paper, and then folding the paper in half and cutting one curve on the outer edge. Then I placed it on the box and drew around the paper for cutting lines.

The trim is made by tracing around the curved edges of the box and cutting with decorative edge scissors. A sticker from the dollar store is placed on a square of the same paper.

I still have no kitchen, but my son in law wired the electric for the dishwasher. It was fun to do this box today when not much else could be done here.