Photo frame out of a box

Ever found a beautiful box – with sweets, clothes, gifts, toys but don’t know what to do with it? Let me share one of my ideas…

I found this lovely pink box that my friend had stacked away in her office drawer because it was too beautiful to be thrown away but she could not think of anything to do with it…

This one had a transparent rectangle right in the middle on its face. If the box you are trying to work on, does not have one, simply carve / cut it with a sharp cardboard cutter.

I added another transparent pocket behind and gave it a border on the front.

For the pocket, use transparency sheets as show below.

The border I cut out from an old greeting card.

I had this beautiful poster of Kanha (Indian Deity) drawn on a dried Banyan leaf:

Inserted it into the pocket I had created on the box and the final outcome came out to be…

I did not add many embellishments simply because I wanted to keep it simple. You can add beads, stickers even ribbons or other craft paper cut outs to decorate the photo frame.

The trick is to stay focused on one idea and add things that come to mind with that theme.

Here are some examples:

1. Suppose you want this to be your handmade dad’s day gift. You could decorate the box with some stickers related to dad’s day. Embellish with some square buttons or something. Keep the look such that it fits your father’s personality.
   Similarly for mom’s day. Add some stickers, some beads or buttons, tie a girlish bow / ribbon.
2. For a valentines’ day you could decorate this with red hearts cut out and dried rose petals.
3. For someone’s birthday you could add birthday stickers and some confetti.
4. To give a gift as a remembrance of a holiday, recreate the magic of those days.
   If you went to a beach, decorate this box with shells and may be a dried star fish. You can also add a couple glass fishes (click here for instructions).
   If you visited mountains, stick together some pine needles or dried leaves or even some nuts!
5. To add a little personal touch, cut out hearts or stars or any other shapes you like from some colored papers, write your thoughts-good wishes-messages on them and put them inside this box.
   Alternatively add chocolates / toffees / cookies inside the box.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!

Like this entry? You can also create cool stuff from everyday things… Just think out of the box…

Update:

I am sending this entry to Shruti’s  Arsy-Craftsy Challenge from Mindful Meanderings. Wish me luck!