Balsa Wood Boxes

This summer was the summer of "A's" as far as my craft projects went. I painted and stenciled three balsa wood boxes, all as gifts for people with names starting with "A." All the painting was done with acrylic or tempra paints.

For a 10-year-old girl, I made a box for her to keep all her friendship bracelet making materials in. She had been asking me to teach her how to make friendship bracelets and so I put together a box with all she would need to learn and create all in one place. The "A" is a WordArt font I printed out, laid on top of the box and traced with a pencil, pressing moderately so the imprint of the letter would appear on the box. The sides were stenciled with a pencil outline and then painted.

 I cut up a flat piece of wood and fit it in the bottom of the box as dividers to separate the floss, ruler and scissors. I copied and laminated instructions for how to tie the knots and for a few simple patterns, putting them on a binder ring to keep them organized and together. The box can be used as a work space, with the bracelet clipped in the side of the closed box.


Another box I painted was the same shape and size of the one pictured above. I am working on getting a picture of it.  This one I did for my friend that was going off to University of Pittsburgh in the fall. I painted stenciled and painted the box in school colors, navy and gold, with a retro-looking pattern. For the letter on this box, I used a chip board "A," painted the top gold and the sides navy. It made a nice contrast and made the letter "pop." I lined the inside of the box with white, self-stick felt.

The third box, which was really the first one I did, I made for my friend that graduated 8th grade and made her confirmation. I am also working on getting a picture of this project. This box is a little larger, rectengular box. I painted it with black and white acrylic paint in a quatrefoil pattern. I knew her room had a black, white and teal theme to it, so I did the box in black and white and painted the chip board "A" in teal. In this box, I also lined the inside with felt to give it a jewelry box feel.