Decorate a Box – Mermaid Treasure Box Makes a Special Homemade Gift

Make a decorated box if money’s tight this Christmas. Here’s an easy, inexpensive craft which can be made with tons of love and extra-special touches for the recipient.

Below is a decorated box I made for my oldest granddaughter for her 7th birthday. Here’s a link to other decorated boxes I’ve made, also called altered boxes.

For this project, I bought a box from the Dollar Tree, but if you have a shoe box or something similar, you can use that. I also used pictures from calendars that had a tropical island theme. It’s easy to tear out parts of the pages and use them to cover whatever part of the box you decide to decorate.

I covered the inside and outside of this box and used various pieces of calendar pictures for a collage effect. My favorite glue is Tacky Glue, but you can use Elmer’s glue, too.

The mermaid is from a piece of scrapbooking paper. I outlined the mermaid with a gel pen, then added glitter glue.

If the lid of the box is snug, you might want to skip covering the inside edge with anything since it might make it hard to get the lid on and off.

Use scraps of ribbon and other things you have around the house for the rest of the box. I bought the beaded trim at the dollar store, then added gem stickers on the ribbon. The gem stickers were a dollar a package at the Dollar Tree.

Lynn Kelley, decorated box

Bottom of the box

I have a dish of sea shells in my bathroom, and my oldest granddaughter admired those shells every time she visited us. She also loves a children’s mermaid book we have, so that’s why I choose a mermaid theme for her gift.

Above, the box is standing up on its side. Wouldn’t this make a cool background for a diorama?

The photo of the clouds and blue sky is from a different calendar page than the ocean water. I thought the two pieces looked good together, and the torn, uneven edges give it a nice effect, too. Embellish your box with whatever you have that fits the theme.

Once the box was finished, I had to put something in it, so I got a sheer drawstring bag and put a few seashells in it and also a piece of costume jewelry that looks like something you’d find in a treasure chest.

Twinkle Eyes (my nickname for granddaughter) loved the gift. It seems the other three granddaughters have taken a liking to mermaids, too, so I have until the spring to make those gifts.

Below is a video of the mermaid box.

There are so many themes you can choose to decorate your box. If you choose a music theme, you could use sheet music instead of scrapbooking paper. Guitar picks would make cool embellishments. They’d be easy to glue on.

For a sewing theme, a tape measure would make a cute border around the top of the box or the bottom, and buttons add a nice touch. The sky’s the limit. Let your creative side fly. Craft projects are so good for reducing your stress level and very rewarding when you finish your project and wrap it up, top with a pretty bow, and give it to the special person you made it for. Enjoy!

Do you like to give homemade gifts? How about receiving homemade gifts? Do you enjoy shopping in a store, or do you like to shop online, or a little of both? How’s your holiday season going so far? 

I’d love to hear from you.

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3 Responses to Decorate a Box – Mermaid Treasure Box Makes a Special Homemade Gift

  1. Patricia says:

    Cool. I love the boxes. I do a similar thing with Christmas cards that I get. I decoupage them onto paper boxes and use lace and ribbon to decorate. Very similar only with a Christmas flair.

    Fun stuff.

    Patricia Rickrode
    w/a Jansen Schmidt

    • Lynn Kelley says:

      Oh, your boxes sound lovely, Patricia. I’d love to see photos of them. I, too, save Christmas cards and birthday cards, etc. to use for scrapbooking. I love how everyone has their own style. That would make a neat blog post. I’d love to see your beautiful creations. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. Pingback: Homemade Gift - Decorated Box - Altered Art Box - Art TherapyLynn Kelley, Author

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