Asian Altered Box with Embellishments

This is an altered paper mache box I found at my local Beverly Fabric Craft Store. This was made for a special friend's birthday. The size is 4-/2" x 4-1/2" x  8-1/2". The paper used to cover this outside box is Graphic 45 Jasmine Dream.

 Here's a little side view:

On the front, a large coin with a stone hanging from a fancy string.  The stone was an item that was a close out at a past Scrapbook Expo - so I grabbed a few not knowing what I would do with them until now.

And here's what is embellished on top of the box: a porcelain black crane (it's a chop stick rest), variety of coins, plate, and fans.  The base of the box is a SVGcuts.com image from their Chinese New Year Collection found here. The image is cut using Kelly Gold card stock. The Red Chinese Bell from Alpha Stamps found here is tied with black cord.

Here's another view of the box top:

Open the magnetic front flap to reveal:

Then open the right side flap: Paper used is Graphic 45 Pearls of Wisdom.  Are you lovin the boxes?

Paper used for the boxes are Graphic 45 Pearls of Wisdom:

Open further to fully reveal the different positions of the boxes. Note the boxes have a magnetic lid to keep them closed.

The top box is covered in the inside with Graphic 45 Good Fortune paper and contains a package of die cut swirly white clouds. (from Taylored expressions):

The second box has packages of die cut pagoda in black card stock and gold card stock.  Die is from La-la Land Crafts found here.

The third box is a package of gold dies cuts from SVGcuts.com Chinese New Year Collection found here.

Last box is a variety of coins that can be used for embellishment:

This is what the box looks like before embellishing: it is fully naked!

First step is to paint the edges with some black acrylic paint.  The boxes needed to be removed in order to position the paper in the background. The fun part was to be sure they were returned back to the original spots!

This was a really fun project to alter with some great results.  No doubt I will be making more of these in the future. thanks for coming by today and hope you are inspired to make one, too.