An Echo Park For the Record Jewelry Box

Today I have another holiday gift idea being featured over at Lori Whitlock's Blog.  Yay!  :)

For this one I transformed an inexpensive unfinished wood jewelry box that I found at my local craft store.  When I say inexpensive I'm not kidding--I think at Craft Warehouse it retailed for $4.99 and they have many of their unfinished wood items on a constant 40% off sale so it was actually under $3!  Such a bargain!  :)

I started by taping off the mirror with painters tape and painting the entire piece with black acrylic paint.  I won't lie... Around the mirror is not perfect.  The painters tape did it's job well, but with the nature of mirrors it is reflecting the unfinished wood on the underside that I am unable to get to with a paint brush, but unfortunately I ended up having to accept it.  One step that I didn't do after this, but I wish I had is adding a coat of Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic spray.  I think this would really help the box hold up more to knicks and scratches.

Next I set to work covering the box in Lori's beautiful For the Record 2 Documented papers that she designed for Echo Park.  I am in love with the colors in this collection!  To give the inside a finished look, I lined the compartments and drawer with different patterned papers from the set and I love the extra splash of color it gave the project.  As a last minute thought I finished the piece with a set of flourishes which I diecut from white vinyl and applied to the inside mirror.  I love how the mirror reflects the flourishes and gives them a shadowed, dimensional look.

 

For the flowers I diecut the petals, chalked the edges with my favorite Colorbox Chalk ink and then took the edge of my paper piercer and sort of ruffled the petals by gently rubbing my paper piercer edge on them like you would with a pair of scissors and a piece of curling ribbon.  They were looking so flat coming right off my cutting mat and this really brought them to life.  ;)

 

Another tip I would suggest is taking the back hinges off the box (in back) while you paint and cover the piece with your papers AND resisting the urge to put the box together until it is completely done.  I found that as I added the lace border around the edge and the blue patterned paper to the inside frame that every little extra layer added to the bulkiness of the piece and affected the box's ability to close smoothly and lay flat when closed.  If I had waited until the very end, I think I could have created new holes based on these layers without stripping and enlarging the holes that were already there.

To create this box I used the following cutting files designed by Lori Whitlock which can be found in her shop:
14 Labels
3d Flower Set
3d Flower
3 Eyelet Borders
Flourish Set 5
Round Doily

And this Silhouette shape by Echo Park:
Echo Park Flourish

I hope you've enjoyed this project!  Thanks so much for stopping by!