Making my "BELIEVE" Box- a fun repurposing tutorial with a box and painted canvas!

When I choose my word each year I like to somehow turn it into art, either a painting, a quilt, a something special that I can have in my studio to remind me of my intention for the year. This year, as you all know, my word is "BELIEVE"!  As I was pondering what to put my word on I was straightening up from the holidays and was putting all the tea away from a gift I received. It was a gift box of different teas and when the boxes were put away I still had a wooden box that just couldn't be thrown away!!

I have been creating these wonderful pieces of painted canvas. I buy rolls of primed canvas and then I paint them with friends, with my grandkids, as classes and then they sit in an almost finished state, rolled up until I decide to use them to create something magical. I love them so much that half of the battle is cutting them up. I think I would like to wall paper my studio in them because they make me feel happy! They are bold, bright and wildly designed. All intuitive and nothing ever planned. This seemed like the perfect project for one of my pieces. I choose one that my grandkids helped me paint!

I set the box onto the fabric piece and marked it, my plan was to wrap it from the bottom up the sides and then piece the inside. 

Never having done this before it seemed to make sense but the fact that I was going to cut this up was a bit nerve racking. None the less, nothing ventured nothing gained and I pushed through and made my marks and cut out the corner sections and trimmed off the excess canvas. 

I used Mod Podge to attach to box, painting both canvas and box with it

Next I set the box onto my marked square and began to roll the sides up the sides of the box. I rubbed and burnished all the canvas to make sure there were no air bubbles and that my canvas was tight to the surface. 

I then started to audition pieces or the inside, saving one for the bottom of the inside that was my favorite. I also had to add other strips from other canvases to make the sides work without piecing them. 

After I wrapped the sides and burnished them down I took a razor knife and trimmed off the excess on top of the sides. Being careful to keep my fingers out of the way so as to avoid all injuries and blood on my project!

I next added some of the inside wall pieces and then added the one inside bottom piece that I would have also wrap up two of the inside walls as well as the bottom. Carefully trimming again.

Next I painted the Mod Podge over the corners and edges to make sure everything stays down. Next I spent some time with Acrylic paint pens and gel pens finishing up the details and writing things on my canvas that makes it personal to me. This part of the project is so special and also adds so much detail to the painted shapes which gives it a finished feeling. I also painted the top edge black. After I was done I then sealed it with Mod Podge over the entire box.

The inside of my box before sealing

** Word of Wisdom, sadly I didn't give my gel pens time to cure, I think they probably needed a few days and so the white smeared and had to be reapplied when the Mod Podge was dry. I still love it but suggest some drying time before sealing or use a spray sealer. Enjoy!

I love my box and I will use it to hold things I believe in for the New Year, I can also set it on my book shelves as inspiration. 

Being who we are meant to be means embracing a title

I think as artists we are blessed with this unsatisfiable need to create beautiful things from simple supplies. Just some blobs of paint and a piece of paper, maybe just a pencil and a napkin. I can't tell you how many times I have grabbed a napkin to do a quick sketch of something that had to be captured at that moment. We often are not understood and thus the crazy artist stigma.

This crazy behavior reminds me of the time a group of us artists were having dinner at a little restaurant in San Clemente. We had all ordered our meals and we were having a glass of wine and laughing when the sun came into the restaurant through a small window during sunset and lit up a shelf full of colored jars. As if we had choreographed it, we all jumped up at the same moment and ran to the shelf to start taking photos, trying to capture the moment, the light.  Well you can only imagine how we scared everyone in the restaurant including the chef and owner as they watched us all jump out of our chairs without a word and stood in a doorway taking tons of pictures. Within minutes the sun was gone and regained our composure and looked around to see everyone staring at us and we couldn't help but laugh. They had no idea what drove us to do that, they didn't understand that need to capture a moment. They were clueless and so we did look like a bunch of crazy people. I have so many of those crazy "artist" moments when I just have to pull over and take in the scene or capture a moment.

 I know that many of you, my artist friends, find it uncomfortable to call yourself an artist. That you can't even say the word, let alone feel like one. But why my friend?

Do you have that desire to create? Do you love to experiment and play with different types of supplies. Do you see a painting in every sunset and sunrise, in every tree, driving down the street or just sitting in a restaurant? Does it feel like you have all these projects or paintings inside of you and you don't have enough time to do it all?

Now ask yourself do you feel inadequate, untalented and not worthy of the title "Artist". Do you think people will judge you and you are not good enough? Well then congratulations, POOF, you are an Artist! You need to sign all your work and appreciate your talent now and use it more often. One of the biggest artist stumbling blocks is not practicing your talent! Go forth my artists friends and create! If you haven't viewed the little video on the right side of my blog you should take a few minutes to do so, it is well worth it!