Lessology: Trinket Box

Have you noticed that altered projects are really popular right now?  Lots of manufacturer blogs have been showing altered projects lately, and lots of design teams include people who specifically do altered projects.  Of course, my favorite site for altered projects is Lessology, because Lessology focuses on projects that incorporate repurposed items.

The latest challenge on the Lessology site is to create an altered trinket box.  I have some friends who are planning to visit the Philippines soon, so I created this box (below) as a gift for them.  I figure they can use the box to store their travel-related trinkets and mementos: souvenirs, ticket stubs, coins and banknotes, pretty pebbles and seashells, etc.

I started with this box, which I had lying around (three photos below).  The Mary Engelbreit design is cute, but it doesn't particularly call to me.

So, I changed it to look like this (below).  I covered the floral design on the side of the box with alternating strips of paper.  Some of the strips were from a cardboard box that used to hold chocolates, and the other strips were the last of the leftovers from my Authentique scraps from ScrapFest (see this post).

I decorated the top of the box with more of the cardboard from the chocolate box, some well-inked My Mind's Eye paper scraps, a DCWV chipboard circle, some Echo Park mini alphabet stickers, a coin from the Philippines, and some beads.  To cover the seam along the top edge of the box, where various pieces of paper/cardboard come together, I glued in a border made of twine.

Here are the repurposed elements of the project: the trinket box itself, the coin (first photo below) and the chocolate box (second photo below).  For a whimsical touch, I filled the hole in the center of the coin with a few seed beads.  I like the chocolate box (which is from the B. T. McElrath brand of chocolates--yummy!) because one side had that interesting pattern, and the other side was a yummy shade of chocolate brown.

I further added to the "green" aspect of the project by using up some older supplies.  As I mentioned, I used some paper scraps left over from other projects.  It was nice not to have to cut into any news sheets of paper to make this project.  I also used a bit more of the giant ball of twine (seen below) that my husband's grandmother gave me years ago, and I used up some beads that were left over from making a necklace (also seen in the photo below).

Today is the last day to submit projects for this Lessology challenge, which means that there will be a new challenge posted soon.  I'm excited to see what the new challenge will be!  For now, thanks for stopping by my blog to see my trinket box.  Have a good week!