I thought I would post something entirely different today.  What follows is how to turn a plain cardboard box into a beautiful flowered wastebasket (or storage box….whatever you find useful)   Several years ago, I cut flowers from several old magazines and glued them to empty file folder boxes.  I have used them for storing special fabric.

The process is very easy. You just cut out flowers or scenes from magazine before tossing them.  (I usually pass older magazines onto the Senior’s Center, but once in awhile I’ll use one up on a project like this).

Below is a file folder that has been covered with flowers cut from various magazines.

Today, I decided to transform an 8″ square, 36″ high cardboard box that sits next to my computer and work table because I’m so lacking in space, the tall, thin box was a great use of space.

I cut various photos of flowers from a Good Housekeeping magazine to begin the transformation.  From what I’ve done so far, I’ll probably use up two more magazines….depending, of course, on how many flower photos are in each one.   I cut them out with scissors, curving in and around them to make the  overlapping shapes more interesting.

Then, I turn each piece over and cover the edge all around with glue stick, adding  some lines of glue inside the shape for the best attachment.  The entire box will be sprayed or brushed with lacquer at the very end, so you don’t have to cover the entire back of each cut out,  but it is important to make sure all the edges are glued down well.

This is the way I begin by wrapping some of the larger cut outs around the corner of what I’m decorating.

Here is a picture of how the overlapping of photos creates a sea of flowers, rather than an identifiable scene.

Here’s what two nearly finished sides look like.  Once I’ve finished the sides, I might cover the bottom in the same way or just use plain paper.  The top edge can either end flush with the cardboard, or wrap the flowered paper over the edge, glue down and then reinforce with tape, if you wish.    The last step is to spray all the outside surfaces with lacquer.    Voila…..you have a beautiful container and have recycled the colorful contents of one or more magazines!

Good Luck!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Color, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.