Winter Blues

You would think that when school is out due to bad weather my life might be a little easier with two little ones at home every day, one in particular 4 year old who routinely complains about being bored and having no one to play with.  You would think he would enjoy having his older sister home.  Having not grown up an only child I guess I just had this vision they would all just love each other and get along. {Giggle}  So what have I been up to aside from blog hopping and slowly getting the Christmas decorations down (yes, they are still out).  I have been looking for ideas for Valentine’s Day.  I love looking at magazines as they come in the mail with all this cute stuff I would love to order, but never do.  From time to time I come across something that just smacks me in the face and says, “you can make this”!  Be on the lookout a few Valentines ideas might just be coming your way soon!  In the mean time my 8 year old daughter in the past month has been invited to two parties.  With the holiday gifts and 8 year old girl minds I wanted to try and stay away from your usual gift and try and do something original, so I came up with the idea to put together a nail box, coordinating mini chip board album, and matching card. 

Supplies:

Metal box w/handle

1 glittered 12 x 12 scrapbook paper

1 patterned 12 x 12 scrapbook paper

(2) matching acrylic paints

(3) matching ribbon pieces

(2) matching plain card stock 8.5 x 11 (for chipboard album)

1 tag chip board album

Coordinating stickers

For the Box:

I just happen to have several of these boxes around waiting for a project.  I only recently took pictures of the one I did just this past weekend.  While I did not do a tutorial I can briefly explain how I did the box and its contents.  I started by finding/picking two coordinating scrapbook papers.  I cut (2) of the same sizes of paper to fit around the box.  The first in the box below was the glitter paper (which came (2) to a pack at Target for just $.99).  For this project I only needed one of those pieces.  I also cut (2) of a patterned piece which went well this the glitter paper.  I then carefully tore towards myself the paper to give it a nice edge.  Our purpose for cutting (2) of the same size of each is because one will not wrap completely around the container, therefore your (2) pieces will overlap.  I then picked two colors of coordinating acrylic paint from my stash to paint around areas of the container.  This is to fill in the empty space, as I HATE empty space (ask my husband if there is empty space on our counters or any other clear surface I like to fill it, however filling this space is not necessarily a good thing J).   Next I happened to have some leftover stickers from a birthday page layout I had done so I added a few of these, along with some glittered cupcake stickers (which I also picked up at Target for $.99).  I cut the little girl’s name out with my personal cricut machine, and used some silver stickers I had to spell out nail box.  Added some coordinating ribbon to the handle to pretty it up just a little more and ta..da box done.

Box Contents Included:  (4) nail polishes, (1) top coat, good smelly hand sanitizer, mini nail polish remover, lotion, lil’ nail kit (with toe separator, nail scrub brush, and file), yummy lip gloss, cotton rounds, best friend tattoos (left over from my daughters party), some lollipops, hair bands, and my brightest idea (I used a vinyl table cloth, which I had cut up into squares for a girl scout project and some wide ribbon used as bias tape and made a mat for putting under their hands while they worked on their nails).  Obviously there was more than just nails stuff in the box, but in short it was all girlly!  

For the Album and card I just used all my left over’s from the box and some cardstock which matched and made really simple pages.  For the title I just printed on the computer and cut to look like lil’tags.  Then for the card you guessed it utilized those leftovers.

I love getting and buying homemade items for my children, I hope that others enjoy receiving it as much as I do.  Anyone can go out and buy a gift or a gift card.  Not every parent has the ability to make things I hope it sticks with my kids that their mom did!  Well that is what I have been up to!  Enjoy and hopefully I have inspired you to make a little girl in your life a nail box!