Little Boxes of Joy

I've been having fun creating little trinket boxes for sale in my shop and for the upcoming craft fair. I've also had a few custom requests. And, I love custom requests! When I create something as a gift for someone, I really get to pour my heart and soul into the project. For example, I recently had a request from a mom in Texas to create a jewelry box for her daughter. I made one for the other daughter earlier this summer, and I can't wait to personalize this next one for the older daughter (I'll show you a before and after in a future post).

I also hand painted and embellished a 16th birthday present for my friend's daughter -- makes it really special when you actually know the person!

Here are the two I made for her (below). I let her mom select her favorite. As you can see, they are completely different styles. Since she's a dancer, her mom opted for the larger, more dance-oriented box. This one was painted a pale pink and distressed by rubbing a black glaze medium along the sides. I then used rubber stamps to create the top designs and highlighted them with this cool opalescent water color ink that I bought at a garage sale. I added Swarovski crystals to the ballet shoes to match the vintage jewelry piece I used for the knob. So much fun!

The other design is a little less dance-oriented (except for the quote). On this one I tried some different materials to create basically the same distressed look. I used white gesso to paint it and then rubbed "Shabby Shutters" distressed ink from Tim Holtz along the sides ... I liked the effect! Then I added some Prima flowers, vintage pearls and this little pearl thingie I found in my stash.

Last, is another jewel box that a friend of mine bought from me (the very top photo). It features a gorgeous and colorful vintage jewelry piece. She wanted some velvet paper added to the inside so I finished it up and added a pretty stamped flower with a Swarovski crystal inside to surprise her (I'm not showing it just in case she reads this before tonight).

I always like to add a surprise element to the bottom of the boxes that I create and I don't photograph it for my etsy shop because I want it to be a surprise for the buyer. Just a little extra!