Killing Two Crafts With One Knife

Today is my mom's birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with a new craft?

Yesterday, I interspersed work with craft time and finally made use of some nice art papers I bought when I was at university, in 2001. The first task was to make a box that would hold a little pottery bowl I purchased from Stanley Pottery on PEI when my band the Good Lovelies was last there on tour.

The largest box size listed in the encyclopedia is only 4" x 4" x 1.5", and this was about half the size I needed, so I doubled all measurements and produced a box roughly 8" x 8" x 3". I say roughly because, the lid, step two, turned out to be a little too big when I doubled the measurements. Oh well, I will be more careful next time.


The lid was looking a little plain, so I attacked a cutout flower decoration. All that was required was a template drawn on the back of a nice strip of Japanese paper, cut out with an exacto knife. The flower petals were not cut fully, and this means they can be bent upward, giving the appearance that they have been stuck to the box. Final touch, a bit of raffia to hold it all together.

You could never put anything too heavy in these boxes, but they would make nice reusable gift boxes. My mom quite liked it, and we have a date to make them together some weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!