Shoebox Refurbishing

After "investing" in several pairs of shoes, I was faced with a bit of a dilemma: where to put the shoeboxes? I'm the type that doesn't like to throw something away when it could prove to be useful (my closet bears testament), and so I usually use old shoeboxes for stowing books, papers, etc. under my bed. But with the overabundance of boxes, I stumbled upon an epiphany: why not decorate them with scrapbook paper and other fun stuff, making them appropriately attired for use where everyone can see? So here's what I came up with:

First, You start with a shoebox. Mine was the "Shoebox of Champions". (That was a joke, feel free to laugh...)

Next, pick a sheet of scrapbook paper you like. 

Now cover the lid of the box with the paper and glue into place. It'll be almost as if you were wrapping a box for Christmas presents; trim the excess paper and fold to fit the box.

My scrapbook paper was 12" square, but it was still too short to properly cover the length of the lid, so I called in reinforcements in the form of ivory-colored, letter-sized cardstock. I cut the cardstock in half, as shown:

... And wrapped it on the ends,

trimming the edges with brown binding ribbon (you could use any ribbon) to make it more polished.

Now you're on to the actual box! Find another piece of paper (I used a coordinating color/print, but you could use the same style for lid and box if you prefer)...

...and cut pieces to fit to the sides. this is different from "wrapping" it, as we did with the lid. Now you are just cutting out pieces and pasting them to the box (you could certainly wrap if you wanted to, but it takes up more paper and makes it harder to open/close the box).

I used more of the ivory cardstock on the shorter faces of the rectangle. I also put some more ribbon on this surface, much like I did on the lid.

And this is optional, but you can cover the bottom of the box, too. I used more ivory cardstock, cutting and gluing to the bottom of the box.

And yer done!

The really fun part is embellishing the box. You can do so much with different papers, buttons, trimmings, etc. Make it one of a kind! I made a little lace bow and glued it to the top for the finishing touch:

I've also used rickrack...

                                               

...and ribbon.

For this one, I stamped the nest image onto the lid and colored it with pencils. Then I stamped the same image on another piece of cardstock, cut it out, and stuck it over the first image with a wad of sticky tack in the middle. This way it stands up from the box, having a 3D effect. (They do make sticky pieces of foam to do this with, but I'm on a budget :o)

So enjoy your works of art! This is such a fun project, and it's pretty easy, I think! :)

Here you can see what I use my boxes for. I keep the far left one on my dresser to hold my make-up, I use the middle one as a memory box, and the last one holds some of my books, helping keep my bookshelf tidy :)

The possibilities are endless to turn an ordinary shoebox into a useful, beautiful item! Have fun with it!!

Cheers!

Hanneli