From Trash to Treasure!

Good morning,,,,I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend,,,I know I have been. I spent the better part of yesterday and several hours this morning working on an altered box for a challenge over at Sugar Creek Hollow,,,,,,omg, I love this site! I stumbled upon it quite by accident Saturday, and went immediately to work on my box!

The idea of this challenge is to take something from trash to treasure,,,It's a totally FUN challenge and I love it! You can find their challenge HERE! If you love vintage or shabby chic, this is a challenge for you!!!!!

I was delighted to play along for this one!

I apologize in advance for the unusual amount of pics in this post, but I had to show my box before,,,,,,,,and after.

so without further ado,,,,,,,here is my entry into the challenge,,,,,,

I got the yellow box a couple years ago,,,,,it was mailed to me, and I believe it was a "spring organizer",,,,,,,,there were different cards for which flowers to plant in which month, etc,,,,,

well, if you know me,,,,I KILL anything green and growing, just by walking by them,,,,,I'm amazed my children survived, but they came with their own sounding devices LOL!

I knew at the time that I'd do SOMETHING with the box, but I just could never decide WHAT. So I kept it,,,,,,,,,and kept it,,,,,,,and kept it,,,,,,

I considered trashing it many times, but it was a nice sturdy box,with a magnetic closure,,,,,,and I just couldn't bring myself to trash it,,,,,

and now I am so glad I didn't!

I covered the box with Recollections "Naughty or Nice" paper,,,,,a gorgeous stack of really vintage papers,,,,The large santa in the middle is also cut from that same stack and I cut him out using classic circles large nesties,,,,,,I made all the flowers and holly on my cricut, shaping them with a bone folder. I had some gorgeous antique lace that a friend found for me (Thanks Tereesa!) and I strung that along the bottom and then topped with a string of pearls and a hand made stick pin,,,,,and I hung a hand made tag and a large jingle bell on the side of the box with twine and a fancy hook. All the stamps used in my box are Crafty Secrets.

I inked everything with sepia ink to really antique it, including the corners of the box.

Most of the images are K and company, cut from last year's Christmas paper that I cut out in various ways,,,,,,,

For the inside, I covered all the index cards that came with it in Christmas paper from various stacks (mostly K and Co and Recollections) and then decorated each with images and gold corner embellishments,,,,,,,and a fancy "hook" that works perfectly well as a paper clip. Each of the tags is labeled with a label that represents some aspect of Christmas preparations. Gifts, Food, Shopping, receipts, etc. My "useless" box will now serve as a Christmas organizer for our family,,,,,I can keep track of all my shopping lists, gifts to purchase, cards to send, etc. There's room behind each tag for lists, receipts, etc.

I'd like to thank Sugar Creek Hollow for hosting such a fabulous challenge,,,,,,,I'd never have thought how to use this box without it! What was a nuisance that I simply couldn't let go, is now a gorgeous box that I can keep all my Christmas prep ideas and lists in. Thanks again for letting me play along!

There's still plenty of time if anyone else wants to create some treasure out of trash! Just click the link above, and get to work!!!!!

I am also entering this into the Addicted to Stamps blog challenge HERE! Such a bunch of vintagy goodness going on this week that I was able to use this for two challenges!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed!!!!!! Please see my second post for an additional photo of the tags inside the box. I could only add five photos to this post!