I cannot claim to have come up with this idea, but I love these boxes so much that I thought I would share them anyway. The brain-power behind these comes for Martha Stewart, originally published way back in March of 2013.
Fortunately, the craft is available online and you can see the (admittedly better) original M.S. version:
Source: Martha Stewart
You can click on the link for proper numbered instructions, but the basic idea is to water down your paint and cover a box. I used the "Unfinished Wood Box by ArtMinds" available at Michael's for around $5, and just unscrewed the clasp with a small Philip's head screwdriver.
The stencil I used is no longer available at Michael's, but can be purchased at Amazon. That said, any stencil that is 3/4" in height should work.
Though Martha's instructions suggest that you dab paint onto the box, I found that to be somewhat messy. What I found to be the best solution was to use a whiteboard dry-erase marker and simply draw in the stenciled letters. The dry erase markers don't have a lot of ink, so there is minimal bleeding.
Filling the boxes was undoubtedly the most fun. All of them have Instax photos from my mini polaroid. My box from Seattle has the wedding invitation that prompted the trip, in addition to pressed flowers from Mount Rainier and tickets from a Mariner's baseball game (my S.O.'s one request for the trip).
My New Orleans box (as seen below) has a Café du Monde pastry bag, tickets to ferries and museums, and even a stirrer from the Court of Two Sisters.
In sum, though it may not be the most creative of diy projects, it remains one of my favorites. Opening those boxes never fails to make me smile; seeing them on my bookshelf makes me so excited about future adventures and trinkets to keep along the way.
