Make Your Own Decorative Boxes

I have a post coming up soon entitled "Feathers In My Food." I think you'll want to see the creation I made. ;-)
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Many years ago when I was crafting every single day after coming home from my office, I decided I wanted some boxes covered in beautiful papers and fabrics. Understand now that I absolutely devoted most hours outside of work to crafting. I absolutely loved it. So today I thought I'd share how to make these kind of boxes below. I'll give you the dimensions and instructions. The rest is up to you. You can use fabric or paper; it's up to you. I've shown you two of ones I've made. The purple roses box is fabric, and the red and pink roses is that gorgeous paper I love so much from The Gifted Line by John Grossman.

They are approximately the same size. I'll give you the instructions and measurements but it's up to you to do the construction. These little boxes are more for show than actual storage boxes; although, I keep pencils in them or my sealing wax and Dyno Label Maker in the other one. But I wouldn't keep anything heavy in them. Again, just for show. ;-)

You'll need foam board. I used 3/8" so that I could "score"—meaning to go a bit of the way through the foam board without cutting all the way through so you can bend it. You'll need to bend it but keep it together. For my size box below, I cut a piece 16" long and 8 & 3/8" wide. I scored it at 6 & 1/2" from the one end and then 9 & 1/2" from the same side. Or in other words, I scored it 6 & 1/2" from each short side. I then bent it carefully as to not split it. Be very careful. Then I cut another piece of foam board 28 & 3/8" long and 2 & 1/2" wide. I scored that piece at 6" and at 7 & 3/4". Using glue to attach together the 2 ends of the LONG piece I scored.

You cover it with your paper or fabric before you start making it, just after cutting it out. Then you glue. I used a glue gun. You can use any glue you want that sticks though. After covering the large piece and the long piece, you glue it together. Then I hot glued a ribbon around it to secure it.

I've read this so much I'm not sure if it makes sense to you, but if you want to try this and it's not clear, email me and I'll help you all I can. It truly is easy.

These boxes are 6 & 1/2" front to back and 8 & 3/8" wide and 2 & 1/2" high or deep.

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I love this living room setting. Just the way the homeowner has everything arranged, very cozy.

A beautiful approach to a rustic door.

Okay, no privacy here at all. I'd feel like Sasquatch was always watching me.

Just simple eye candy for you.

Be still my beating heart. However, I would keep wondering when it is going to come crashing down on my head. Looks a bit heavy.

Smiling at ya!

I don't know whether this is a fabric or a painting but it's one of my favorite photos of roses.

Just a beautiful setting for you. Very peaceful.

Sweet vignette at a bistro.

An old Victorian in San Francisco, my favorite city in the whole world. I love shopping there.

Did you hear that the mailboxes in the hometown of an Olympic Gold Medal Winner in the UK gets its mail boxes painted gold? Usually the boxes are a bright red. But what a sweet idea to help the hometown men and women celebrate a hometown victory. Bless their hearts for doing this for them!

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Ruffled Tablecloths

Let's start off with a pretty mosaic today.

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I don't know why I wanted to do this! But I wanted an extra tablecloth for our dining table, and I wanted it to be washable with no ironing. I have the other one in this post here. While I looked at fabrics all over town, I still couldn't find anything I wanted that was better than this old sheet set that I've been going to throw out for months now. Then I got to thinking—yeah, yeah, I know, a dangerous thing for me but I did. So I took the top sheet and ripped it into 4" wide lengths and put it aside for a while. (It takes me a while to decide on some things that I know I'll regret due to the intensive labor of that decision.) It took me hours to do the ruffling with my ruffler. I'd do a bit, rest because it was killing my back, do more, rest and so on.

Then later on, I ripped the elastic out of the bottom sheet. Now, understand that this sheet is soft and well-worn after many years of use on our bed. I ripped that into a 56" square. My intention was to do a french-type ruffled tablecloth with ragged edges. While I wanted it a bit "rough", I didn't want it unraveling in the washer or dryer. So what I did was stitch along the edges and let it fray a bit. Easy to do but very time consuming. I could have just hemmed it but I'm not enthusiastic about orderly hems. I wanted a bit of the shabby look. I got it!

These are the ruffles as I started. You may click on this to enlarge.

A bit further along. Okay, not really, but I took it in a different light and I was too lazy to take it out and have to do more photos! I practice on you bloggers. ;-) Enlarge this photo also.

Ruffles and more ruffles. Click to enlarge.

The finished tablecloth. And, NO, I did not put it on the table and properly straighten it out; I was just too tired at that point. Click to enlarge.

I thought I'd never finish! I ended up with 60 yards of ruffles. Click to enlarge.

A closeup of the hem. Click to enlarge.

As it appears on the table. Click to enlarge.

Another side. Click to enlarge.

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I love this little respite area. The owner made quite a statement with old wicker, a vintage sewing machine, an old crate, an old chair, a basket of apples and lots of old vintage stuff.

The perfect rose on a cupcake.

An Italian side street in all its quaintness.

An idea for a small picnic, drape a tablecloth over an umbrella.

A rose door hanger.

The yellow coloring on this old building complements the purple wisteria. Beautiful!

A french cottage to rent.

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Linked up with Create with Joy and The Dedicated House, At the Picket Fence, WOW
and  NMH. 

A Missionary Dinner Story

A few weeks ago we fed the missionaries—story a little ways down on this post. Now, in our Church we have young men and young woman missionaries who give up 2 years of their lives to go on missions—men age 19 and women age 21. They pay for it themselves usually, but if a family can't afford it, then the home ward of a missionary will help out. The wards feed them dinners to help out with their expenses but if hubs and I are out at a McDonalds or Jack in the Box, we'll pay for their lunch. They live very frugally during these missions. Some are sent to all of the U.S. states and some are sent all over the world. Today, I'm going to relate a few experiences we've been told about.

Two men we know personally went to Russia or Siberia for their missions. One man said when he arrived he thought he was in another world. Everyone smoked. Most of the members of our Church don't. But he got on a bus to go to a town far into the interior of Siberia. He said there would be hours and hours of nothing but frozen tundra. Then the rickety bus would stop for a smoke break. This was a bit puzzling as they smoked on the bus also, but he thought they'd never get to his destination. It took days on that bus and it was frigid cold. When they did arrive, he thought 'What town?!' There were just a few shacks and he was sent to try and convert them? Several times he asked to come home because he just couldn't get used to how cold it was and the vast cultural divide. But he stuck it out. 

Several year ago, a friend told us that sending a letter to the missionaries in Russia was about $40 per letter!

The other man said the differences were vast also. We have no idea how good we have it here in the U.S. The food was very different, as you would expect. They didn't have much meat. Food was scarce. The toilet paper was so bad it was indescribable. The missionaries would tear up catalogs/books/magazines to use; it was softer than the toilet paper. You have no idea.

Now, I'm going to tell you about our experience the last time we fed the missionaries.

I signed up at the last minute when they needed someone to fill up the calendar. I told hubs we would go to WM and get some orange chicken at their deli but when we got there that morning, they didn't have any so we got BBQ chicken nuggets instead. I took them home and stuck them in the fridge. Around dinner time I took them out, put them on a foil-covered pan in the oven. They arrived here as I was pulling the pan out of the oven. I forgot to spray the foil and the chicken stuck! I said a few mild expletives, told hubs to set the table with 4 wet washcloths and told them dinner was ready. I also told them they would have to pick the foil off each chicken nugget! I wasn't about to do all that work. As missionaries are sweet and kind, they agreed. What a dinner we had to talk about the next day. I told hubby he knew this was going to be a blog post, right? He just looked at me. I did not do this intentionally to blog about. I was in a hurry and simply did not think. :-) I'll remember to spray the foil next time...if they ever want to eat with us again.
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I think the owner just threw a tablecloth or huge pieces of lace over this chair, but it's gorgeous no matter how she did it.

Just cute little cottages.

I'd love to cover my garbage can in my kitchen like this but it's plastic and I'm not sure it would look this great after I did it. Isn't this adorable? Looks vintage.

White, red and pink bedroom. Lovin' it!

An exquisitely packaged gift.

Darling little coin purse someone made.

I love polka dots.

Exquisite portrayal of oranges.

Why don't we do this more often? Picnic in our back yards.

Another lovely bedroom for you. Notice the lace on the sheets.

A scrap bow for a gift package. Very creative.

I just wonder where people find these pretty outdoor rugs. All I can find are the generic beige/brown ones at WM and Home Depot. And we all know how I feel about beige!

I'm even picky about the pencils in my house. No, these aren't mine, but I only buy a certain brand of pencils and a certain lead in it. Picky, very picky. ;-)

Wow!!! What gorgeous colors adorn this home.

Oooooh, it truly is. I hope your day is lovely. Mine usually are and when they're not, they still are.

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The New Living Room Ottoman

I snagged this ottoman or footstool the last time we were back in California to visit with the kids. Daughter's getting stingier with giving me things! She'll inherit them one day. I tried to snag more things but she was adamant this time. LOL Maybe next time I'll get something I really want. But she is making me a mosaic wall clock so I can't complain. :-)

Anyhow, I have this piece of Paganelli Sis Boom fabric that I've loved for a long time. I used a bit of it and there just wasn't any way at all I could make the cover for the entire footstool out of it, so I had to be a bit creative.

See what I mean. There were cuts in it.

And while I do like this fabric I purchased recently for the living room curtains, I still wanted the Sis Boom fabric rose as a centerpiece,

I'd still have had to be creative with this fabric also, not enough to be the only fabric on it.

So using the Sis Boom rose fabric as a centerpiece, I very carefully cut it out. Then decided to incorporate the rose-strewn fabric as a border. Then I added a piece of a beautiful rosebud fabric around that. All of the fabrics are pink and yellow, varying shades, but they go together nicely. This photo can be enlarged to show it at 1200 pixels wide for you to see it better.

This photo can also be enlarged to 1200 pixels wide to show you the closeup and the tiny rosebud fabric much better.

I plan to put a ruffled bottom around it using this striped fabric. I've held it up to the little top covering and the stripe does go well with it.

The other project I've been doing along with the footstool is a cotton/polyester ruffled tablecloth. I want something other than vinyl, which stains mercilessly with any kind of red sauce—lasagne, spaghetti—and will NOT come out no matter what. I've tested a piece of this 54" fabric purchased from Joanns by snipping a piece about 4x4", smearing it with catsup and red Kool-Aid, blow drying it to set it in, washing it in the machine along with this big piece of fabric to pre-shrink it before adding the ruffles. It came out clean as a whistle and I was thrilled. So on to putting the bed skirt ruffles around it. This is the result.

This photo I edited to take out all the color. Nice contrast, but I really nice color the best.

Bigger view as I stepped back a bit to show you. I don't know why the ruffles look whiter than the top but it's much nearer white than it is off-white.

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These blues are very pretty!

I could do this with my hanging potholder also. Why do I not think of these things? I don't put my pots on it as hubs is tall and I have to make sure he doesn't get konked on the head...unless I do it. ;-)

More lovely tapes in colors and roses.

A row of cottages along a pond. If you step out your door, you'd better be careful a car doesn't smash into you. The roads in England and Ireland are the narrowest I've ever seen. Our son was recently in Scotland and he said they drove rather crazily there, but seriously crazy on those small roads and he's from California! They don't get any crazier than the freeways there! ;-)

Some of you may have seen this lamp recently. I think I spotted it in a catalog but cannot remember where it was.

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Linking up with Claudia's Favorite Things.