My nephew lives a few hours from us and we do not get to see him very often. For his birthday last month I wanted to send him something a little different to celebrate.  I combed through quite a few Pinterest pictures and found this adorable birthday box idea.  I decided this would be the perfect gift for a long distance family member, and set out to make one myself.

First I gathered my supplies:

• An empty shoe box.  The shoe box had the lid attached so it made my gift box decorating all the easier.  I did not have to do any finagling to hinge the lid together.
• Scrapbooking paper with a birthday theme.
• Glue – I used tacky glue and my crafters’ tape.
• Mod Podge.
• Sponge brushes for the Mod Podge.
• Washi tape.
• A paper-cutter.
• Brightly colored crochet thread.
• A set of free printables that I found with a Pinterest link at 100directions.com.  The printables were really the thing that inspired me to get going and create my box.  they are adorable.

 Next I planned the paper placement and cutting, and the placement for the printables for my box of fun.

• I cut the paper pieces for the inside of the top of the box first and glued them in place.  Then I added the trim pieces to embellish the edges.

• Then I cut the paper pieces for the bottom of the box and the sides on the inside and glued them in place.

• On the top of the outside of the box I cut squares to make a little patchwork look.  I used a colorful scrapbooking paper here and some plain brown crafting paper.

• Then I embellished the top of the box with the printables, and washi tape.
• The washi tape really helped to make the edges looked finished, and like they had a uniform border.

• On the sides of the outside of the box I used the same paper that matched the paper that had been used on the lid.

Decorating for the inside of the lid was quite fun.

• I cut the pieces out for the banner, and then punched holes in the corners of each piece so they could be strung together.

• I used some brightly colored cotton crocheting thread to string the banner inside of the box.
• Then I added the embellishments to complete my “Happy Birthday” message.

When I was done decorating the entire box I painted a thin coating of Mod Podge over the top of the outside of the box to keep all of the paper in place and give it a box a bit of a glossy sheen.

Now for the contents of the box I wanted to do something fun for the birthday boy.

• I baked a little lemon cake.
• Sent a can of frosting with sprinkles, and a couple of plastic knives for him to decorate the cake and share with his friends.
• Sent some birthday plates, spoons, and napkins.
• Added some candy – M&M’s and Cracker Jacks
• Threw in some party decorations, and he was all set to celebrate.

This project was a ton of fun.  I would do this again in a heartbeat.  You can change the contents so easily to give any sort of themed gift; baseball, a night at the movies, favorite coffee’s.  The possibilities are endless.  I’ll be confiscating shoe boxes from all of my family members from now on to build up  crafting/gifting supply.

This post linked to the GRAND Social