Unity altered wooden box

This was a gift i made for my mom for christmas. I made a card this with sentiment from Unity Stamp Company a bit back and put it in my etsy shop and my mom told me she was about to buy my card out of my etsy shop just because she loved the quote so much. I told her that was totally silly and she'd get something with a quote eventually. So for christmas i had to do something with it!

Now here's something about Unity's quote singles... they are HUGE! I mean, no joking! They are very very large stamps and for 6 bucks, you cant beat it! So they are fantastic on a lot of things... cards, scrapbook pages, altered items... it's really a fab deal.

Here's my altered wooden box...



I was so thrilled with how this turned out! Even moreso because i was doing it the night before we left for Indiana! Now i'm obsessed with making more of them (though i havent yet). I bought the wooden box at Hobby Lobby for 2.99. Not to mention that they have sales on stuff like that all the time! I went the other day (and they had 30% off) but they didnt have any of these boxes in stock. bummer.

Now i already did a little tutorial on how to use crackle paint about 2 weeks ago. If you missed it, you can see it here. I love love love crackle paint! It makes things look so stinkin' cool! You might notice here that the crackle looks different than it does in the link post. The cracks are much much smaller and closer together. The only thing i did different was i waited longer for the crackle to "dry" (note: you do NOT let the crackle dry completely!) Also, the thicker the coat of crackle is, the larger the cracks will be. So it may take some practice until you can judge the size of the cracks before you even apply the top coat, but the great thing about crackle is it always looks good!

I painted the entire wooden box with brown apple barrel paint. I actually painted 2 coats which i usually do for the bottom layer. Let that dry completely then add your crackle medium. And like i said, i waited longer this time for the crackle to dry because i wanted smaller detail in the cracks. Then i applied an off white ACRYLIC paint. The bottom coat isnt a huge deal (sometimes i spray paint, even though the crackle medium says to use acrylic) but i always use an acrylic paint for my top coat. Those cheapie americana paints at the craft store are acrylic. After that dried completely i sponged/rubbed antiquing glaze around all my edges. I just love the antiquing glaze with the crackle. they go together so nicely. I actually did NOT add any further coats. the smaller cracks arent really bothered by no top coat.

For my front, i used the unity quote and colored it in with markers so that the various words would be different colors. I put it on a chocolate cardstock mat and was done with it. Super easy and looks so cool. I cant wait to do one for my craft room!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by today on this Holiday and i hope everyone has a fantastic 2009!!! I know i have LOTS in store for 2009 so i cant wait!