Creative Gift Boxes with Rachel Whetzel

WHAT YOU'LL NEED to make your own gift box:

A box that you can repurpose, or a new box. Either should be made with a paper like finish.

Creative Paperclay®
Paints. I use Folk Art acrylic craft paints.

Stain. I used Valspar antiquing stain, and Ranger Ink Distress Inks (walnut)
Paint brushes
Scissors
Papers (I used an old dictionary page)
Glue. I used Elmer's School Glue for this project. 

Texture Plates, Rubber stamps, and other items for creative texturing. 

Wet the surface of your box, and start pressing clay into it.

When the top is completely covered, start pressing texture into the wet clay. I cut some punchinella, and pressed that onto the top.

To get a lot of my pieces pressed well into the top, I would turn the box top upside down and press into the counter tops.

I kept layering stamps and texture plates until I got the look I liked.

Once the top was dry, I sanded the sides of the box smooth, and glued dictionary pages around the outside. Once the glue was dry, I trimmed the excess paper.

Then I painted the top of my box! Once the paint was dry, I layered in shading by using stain (black paint would work too) and wiping the surface, leaving black in the crevices of the piece, and allowing the blue paint to show through. I used some of my Alumidust BRONZE to add a fun bit of color and shimmer on the US Art Quest stamped area, by using my finger to lightly dust the piece and rub the bronze in.

When I was all finished with my layering, I finished off the look by using Ranger Ink's Distressing Inks to darken up the edges of the box. Then I topped the whole thing off with a pretty white piece of twine.

I also played a bit with the twine placement, so that the lid could be removed without taking off the twine. Now I have a really cool, totally unique gift box to put something pretty in!!

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