Repurpose a Shoebox Into a Keepsake Card Holder
5 Materials
I've saved all of my Mother's Day cards since becoming a mother thirty seven years ago and I have quite a collection. But unfortunately, I place them in a drawer that's become cluttered with other stuff. So the crafter in me needed to make something adorable to hold my cards.
A shoebox can easily be repurposed to hold cards, or letters, photos, and other special items that we hold dear. The possibilities are almost unlimited on how to repurpose and decorate them.
Begin by finding a shoebox big enough to hold different size cards you want to keep. I had an idea to decoupage a shoebox with paper doilies and pretty flowers from paper napkins, but somehow it didn't exactly turn out how I hoped it would. I call it my craft fail. See for yourself!
Once you have a shoe box, cut out the border from doilies, adjusting the size to fit the top by cutting, and then decoupage onto the top of the box . . .
gently smoothing out the border using the back of a plastic spoon or cling wrap.
Next, cut out decorative borders from round paper doilies and decoupage onto the corners of the top and adding a round cut out doily border to the center.
Once all the doilies are dry, cut off the excess paper corner edges.
To age the look of the box, since the majority of the box was black, it was easier to paint the entire box black and then rub excess off with a soft cloth. In hindsight, perhaps I should have used a lighter paint color for this.
Anyway, it started to look messy and then, I applied a silver metallic rub and buff and then painted metallic plum acrylic paint over that. Again, trying to get an aged look with a plum color accent.
Continuing on, despite how this was looking . . . I cut out flowers from paper napkins and then separated the plain ply layers from the flowers . . .
before adding them to the top using Mod Podge.
Next, I glued on metal feet . . .
added a bit more metallic plum acrylic paint to the top and sides for a lovely antique look!
It looks so much better, and lovely enough to hold my most cherished Mother's Day cards!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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4 comments
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Oh how lovely Gail. Mine are all stuck in a drawer, this is so much better
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Love this!
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Hey Brenda! How are you? Thanks so much!
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