Altered Boxes for Back to School

Hi everyone!  Barbara here on the GSL blog, and today I am up cycling a couple of old Cricut cartridge boxes into pencil and school supplies boxes.  I used Graphic 45 papers to cover them, and some fabulous Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard to finish off the embellishments.

I had stored these boxes in my attic so the glue had deteriorated and made it easy for me to take the boxes apart.  I have been known to use my heat gun to carefully heat the adhesive to make it easy to remove things stuck together, like this.

Next, cover the outside of the "lid" of the box with the G45 paper.  Wrap the ends of the paper around to the inside.

Then cover the inside, as shown, using only strips along the inside edges (red dots) and a piece large enough to cover the inside top of the lid.

The box bottom was covered only on the three sides that will show, wrapping the excess paper around to the bottom, as shown.

Adhere the bottom and back side of the box to the "lid", as shown.

I chose these three adorable ballerina dancers for the main embellishments for the top.  Each one was colored with ink pads that best matched the colors in the papers.

Each ballerina was adhered to the top with foam dots for added dimension, along with fussy cut images from the papers.  The "ABC" was inked with the green ink pad and adhered between two dancers, as shown.

Here is a view from the side.

And a closer look at the finished top.

The second box was covered in a similar fashion, as shown.

A look at the inside of the box.

I left the Vintage School chipboard shapes intact and added a coat of gesso over the whole piece.  

Each piece I chose to use on this box was colored, once again using ink pads that best matched the colors in the paper.  The two rulers were edged with brown ink, and a ruler image was cut from the paper and adhered to the top of each ruler.  

"ABC", the two apples, and "123 charm" were colored with the ink pads.  

And here is the top of the second box, all embellished.  I just love how the chipboard adds so much dimension to the top.  

On the inside of each box, I added a few more chipboard pieces.  A "123" piece was added to the box on the left, and a pencil was colored and added to the box on the right.  Just a little touch like that adds so much to a project.

Lastly, I added magnets to the box bottom and lid of each box to make for a nice closure.

Supplies used:

GSL Vintage School Shape Set (coming soon)

GSL Tiny Dancers - Ballet (coming soon)

Graphic 45 An ABC Primer

Empty boxes

Ink Pads in colors to match paper

Mini Magnets

White glue

Xyron Creative Station

I hope you have been inspired to make a couple of these boxes for your kids to keep their school supplies in.  And be sure to stop by Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts to see all the newest laser cut chipboard!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Barbara