Covered Boxes for Dress-Up Jewelry

And now for our last installment of Operation Toy Clean-Up!

What's the first thing I did? You guessed it, I raided the box collection! Perhaps you're getting an idea just how big that collection is. If not, I'll just tell you I've barely scratched the surface ;) For this project I chose the smallest boxes I had. They mostly came from purchases from Amazon.com.

Next, I cut the top flaps off at the score mark. Then, I taped the bottom closed. To keep pieces of jewelry from finding their way under the inside flaps I glued them down.

While the glue was drying I let the Princesses choose the paper they liked from my scrapbook paper supply. Once all the paper was chosen I picked a paint color that could be found in all the different papers.

In this case the chosen paint is blue. As you can see I painted the entire inside and let it dry.

Next, I cut the paper. For the bottom piece I cut it about 1 to 1.5 inches bigger on all sides. For the two long sides I cut it 1 to 1.5 inches bigger on three sides (I left the bottom edge flush with the bottom of the box). For the short sides I cut it 1 to 1.5 inches bigger on the top side (I left the bottom edge flush with the bottom of the box and the side edges about .25 inch shorter).

I started with the bottom of the box by spreading a medium layer of Mod-Podge all over it. Then I laid the paper over it and smoothed it down to get the wrinkles out. 

Next, I cut the corner and glued the overhang up the side of the box.

After doing this to both matching sides I did the other sides. Once those were done I glued the small flaps to the first two sides to close the corners. Then, using a medium layer, I Mod-Podged the entire bottom and up the sides over the polka-dot paper and let it dry, twice.

After the bottom was dry I started with the long sides. I glued the paper down with the bottom flush with the bottom of the box and the sides overhanging by the same amount (or mostly so, I eye-balled it). Then I glued the overhang down on the short side of the box. 

Then, I glued the top overhang down on the inside of the box starting with the small side piece.

Next, I did the short sides of the box. I glued the paper down with the bottom flush with the bottom of the box. 

Then, I glued the overhang down the inside of the box. 

The last step was to Mod-Podge the entire inside and outside sides twice just like the bottom and let it dry.

If you look in the top left compartment and the top middle compartment you'll see four of the six boxes I made. Each one is filled with something different: necklaces, bracelets,tiaras and masks. The other two boxes I made were larger to store some musical instruments and some felt toys. Due to the larger size I used old wrapping paper but the process was the same. 

Once I got this massive project done I was ready to go through all of the toys with the Princesses and decide what we should give to charity. Since we hadn't done this, ever, I ended up with two large plastic totes full of toys! I've decided five years is too long to wait! 

I still have a few organizational projects in the back of my mind that run along the free or very cheap line but for now the results are fantastic! You can see the floor :)