Friday, August 7, 2009

DIY Details: Card Box

And thus begins the DIY series---a.k.a. all the projects that I didn't get the opportunity to blog about pre-wedding. Hopefully this will be a good distraction while I wait to blog my recaps!

My original idea for a "card box" was to just have a lined basket to match the ones I used for our petal cones and programs. Like this one from Kaboodle:
But both the coordinator at our reception venue and all my family warned by against an uncovered card holder because of the risk of theft. Our reception was held at a coutry club where golfers or others might wander in and grab a card or two (I couldn't believe that! I was apalled when our coordinator said it had happened before.) So I was stuck. The only other option I'd heard of via Weddingbee was birdcages...and those just weren't my style.

I loved Mrs. Avocados' suitcases


but it still didn't solve the problem of a more secure card holder

Then my wonderful aunt jet went up to her attic one one of our crafting days and came down with a box that looked just like this:

source

Then she got out a box cutter, brown spray paint, and a pile of silky cords in different shapes and sizes, all in my wedding colors! ("for embellishment" she said)
[Seriously, the jet's house/garage has any kind of crafting and building tool you can imagine.]

I picked this ivory colored rope and set it aside.

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Then we started with the box. I took out the biggest greeting card I could find and used it to measure the hole, and added an inch. The hole was about 1.5" x 9". I cut it with the box cutter after tracing the lines with a ruler. Old hat boxes have really thick covers with several layers....so be careful when cutting!

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photo by me

Next, We had to change the color of that vintage floral wallpaper stuck to the box.
In order to neutralize the color, we started with 2 layers of white spray paint.

The next week, we got to work on the brown. Ok Aunt Jet got to work while I took pictures:

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We painted at least 3 coats if not 4, about 10 minutes apart. Then we left it for another hour or two to dry.

As I was contemplating how to decorate the box, I remembered Miss Taffy's post on Weddingbee about the rope signs she made for her seed-themed shower.
Voila! We had our card-box idea.

I carefully traced with white chalk the word "cards". After many tries and much erasing, I got out craft glue and traced the chalk, on letter at a time. I wrote it in cursive not because I liked how it looked, but because the rope frayed very easily and I didn't want to have to cut it more than at the beginning and the end.

After carefully laying the rope over the glue outlined letters, I held the rounded letters ("r" and "d" were the hardest to keep together) with my hand for 10 minutes or so until i was confident they wouldn't slide around.

My first try, I felt that the letters were too off center and disproportionate so type A me ripped the rope off the box. re-spray painted the top, and started over!

see how big the "c" and "a" are compared to the "d"? yikes!

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The second try was more successful (though still not centered!)

The glue dried within a day, completely clear....and this is what I ended up with!

photo by Uncle Cam


photo by Little Hands Photography
 

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