« Monogrammed Art Boxes - a Great Gift »

My nephews have a thing for art. They enjoy drawing, painting and coloring and being sort of creative myself, I really try hard to encourage their artistic growth. One of the best ways I can do that is by providing them good quality art supplies. Even though they are 6 & 8, I am not going to give them a "kid's art set" with junk paints when I can keep my eye out for a good sale and give them some quality mediums.

These boxes were on a one day special at Michael's, down from $39.99 to $15. Talk about a steal! Unfortunately they looked just alike and when you have a sibling that spells trouble.

In order to make them stand out from one another, I put their first name initial on the top. I figure it fits since they call me by the initial of my first name "A". The boxes came out really well but totally different. Unfortunately, I didn't snap pic's of the other when completed because I got caught up in the frenzy of GOT TO WRAP IT NOW CHRISTMAS IS MERE SECONDS AWAY - WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

For this project you will need: 

• Art boxes pre-filled with supplies
• Contact Paper (pattern does not matter)
• Print out of letter initial
• Spray Adhesive
• X-acto Knife
• Tape
• Spray paint
• Craft paint
• top coat (Mod Podge or Polyurethane Spray )
• Liquid Gilding (optional)
• Ruler and dry erase marker (optional)

First take your letter print out and make sure you are happy with the size in relation to your box. If you are, use spray adhesive to attach the print out to a piece of contact paper. 

Next cut the shape of the letter out with your x-acto knife, cutting through the paper and the contact paper at the same time while holding onto any interior parts like the bubbles inside of a "B".

I used dry erase marker to mark the center lines of my box and on my cut out. I lined them up to make sure that my letters were perfectly centered. This is a little OCD and totally optional.

Remove the paper backing from the contact paper and smooth down onto the top of your box. Pick up and tweak if necessary to get smooth lines and eliminate any creases on the edges.

Tape off any area that isn't covered by your contact paper masking. I used duct tape because it was what I could find at the time.

Because I didn't have the time nor the patience to sand my project I hit it with a quick blast of spray paint. When dry, then go over with craft paint, or as I did - silver liquid gilding.

When dry, carefully remove your contact paper and extra tape.

Now we're going to age the piece a bit. Take black acrylic paint and cover the entire top except the letter itself. But you will want to overlap with paint just a tiny bit on the edges of the letter. Allow to dry overnight.

When fully dry, you have two options. The first will yield the results seen here: Take a credit card or something similar and carefully scratch away the acrylic paint. It will remove easily since the top hasn't been sanded. It will, however, remain in any nooks and crannies giving it a nice aged feeling.

The other option is to hit it with the sander. This yielded a totally awesome and industrial look and removed some of the wood stain around the letter too. Very cool. If I can get my sister to send a pic, I'll update with it, but trust me it's pretty awesome.

Lastly, cover with your top coat. I used a thin layer of Mod Podge. Allow to dry.

Unfortunately I wasn't thinking this Christmas. I failed to get any decent pics of the boys using their art kits, but fortunately I snapped a quick pic with my phone of Conner working on his masterpiece entitled "Ketchup Mustard Lettuce".

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