Materials needed
Shoe box
Pages from a magazine or you could use pages from a book
Watercolor crayons
Scrap paper
Yarn
Acrylic paint
Water soluble markers
Pastels
Mod Podge or a ½ glue ½ water solution
Card stock
Blue painters tape
Scissors
Heating tool or hair dryer
I started with a sturdy old shoe box.
I covered the box with pages from an old magazine using a ½ glue ½ water solution. Mod Podge and book pages would also work. I have found old books to use, but I can't make myself pull the pages out.
I have endured too many years of parents and teachers
telling me to take care of my books. It
just seems wrong to me to tear one apart.
I sharpened a few watercolor crayons in a clean pencil sharpener, then I put the shavings in the box. After that I sprayed the shavings with water. It is a technique I had been wanting to try.
The next step would have been to put another page on top and then iron. Being that it was in a box, I put a piece of card stock on top and then heated it with a heating tool.
After that, using a wet brush I covered the watercolor crayons. Orange on the inside of the bottom and green on the inside of the top. In retrospect I think it would have been prettier if I had left it lumpy.
On the outside of the bottom I drew black wavy lines and filled in the spaces with the watercolor crayons.
Years ago, my sister and I were at a park with her three girls. The
youngest came up to us limping and started to tell us how her sisters
had given her the limp. Before she could finish her story a squirrel ran
past, she stopped in mid-sentence and said "look a squirrel". She then,
forgetting to limp, ran after the squirrel. So now when I feel like I'm
being mistreated, I just think "look a squirrel", and I go on with my
life. That's the meaning behind "look a squirrel" on the top of the box.
I drew the squirrel with an ink pen and the butterfly's are ink on top
of acrylic. I made the balloons by putting down a round piece of paper I
cut out and rubbing a red ink pad on top, then red and white pencil on
the inside of the circles. I put red ink on a purple piece of card stock
and wrote look a squirrel, thin ripped the words out and glued them to
the box.
I decided I did not like the balloons, so I made them into flowers. I cut out circles from painted card stock and glued them over the balloons. I then painted petals around the circles. I painted light blue around the butterflies and squirrel so that they would stand out better. I outlined the wording with white on top and black on the bottom. I cut some violets from stationary paper and glued them over the grass.
I glued a piece of orange painted card stock that I ripped on the bottom of the sides of the lid. I then painted circles with gesso.
I glued circles of painted card stock in the center of the gesso. I colored the gesso in with pastels.
On the back of the box I put pieces of blue painters tape.
I painted over the tape with gesso, than removed the tape. I colored the gesso in with pastels.
I glued down more pieces of card stock and some yarn. Then touched up the circles with markers and paint.
Painting the box was a lot of fun, and now I have a pretty box to keep mail in.
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