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Holiday Projects
Thanksgiving Altered Cigar Box

By Bea Rosenleaf
Trailblazers
Mixed Media Team Designer

I have a stash of old cigar boxes gathering dust. As I pondered what to design for the Holiday edition of Rubber Road Adventures, my eye fell on the stack of boxes and an idea began to formulate.  How about a box to gather everything my family members are thankful for over the course of the year?  That will be a lot since there are 23 of us! Then, while gathered around the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day, we can open the box and read our lists.  What a special way to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Supplies:
Stamps:
    Happy Thanksgiving (The Angel Co.)
    Tradition, a Legacy of Love (The Angel Co.)
    Beyond Grateful (The Angel Co.)
    Being Blessed (The Angel Co.)
    Harvest (The Angel Co.)
    Ancient Alphabet (The Angel Co.)
    Leaves & Acorns Square (Stampin’ Up!)
    Thanks (Dream Impressions)
Noir Black Palette Ink Pad (Stewart Superior)
Jardine Palette Ink Pad (Stewart Superior)
Coffee Archival Ink (Ranger)
2 sheets 12” x 12” ivory cardstock (Unknown)
1 sheet 8½” x 11” Ultra Light White Vellum (Accent Design)
12” x 12” Eire Collection paper (Prima Marketing, Inc.)
Large sheet of bronze textured hand-made paper (Unknown)
Used Cigar Box (found at local cigarette store)
Grunge Board Frame (Tim Holtz)
Copper Perfect Pearls (Ranger)
Hunter Green Acrylic Paint (Apple Barrel Colors by Plaid)
Crackle Medium (FolkArt)
Cinnamon Red Acrylic Paint (Apple Barrel Colors by Plaid)
Walnut Ink Antiquing Solution (Tsukineko)
Sponge Paint Brush
Small paint brush that comes with Perfect Pearls
Copper Mini-Metallic Rub-Ons (Lamp Specialties)
Colored Pencils (Prismacolor)
Cricut Expressions Die Cutting Machine (Provo Craft)
Tags, Bags, Boxes & More Die Cut Cartridge (Provo Craft)
3” grapevine wreath (found at Michaels)
Miscellaneous silk leaves, fruit, flower (unknown)
Sure Bond Hot Glue Gun (Elmer's Products, Inc.)
Adhesives:
    PVA bookbinding glue (Lineco Books)
    Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue (Duncan Enterprises)
    Scotch Vellum Tape (3M)
    Other Adhesives of choice
Miscellaneous fibers
Crop-a-Dile (We R Memory Keepers)
2 Copper Snaps
4 leaf brads (Hot Off the Press)
Scrapper’s Floss (Karen Foster Designs)
Spray Bottle with water
Craft Mat (Ranger)
Needle Nose Pliers (Darice)
Paper Towels or Baby Wipes
Cornucopia computer generated clip art picture
Computer generated quote

Instructions:

1.   Carefully remove the hardware from the cigar box and set aside.

2.   Using the Hunter Green acrylic paint, paint the lid and body, inside and out, with the sponge paint tool. Try not
 to apply the paint too heavily – you want the imprinted words to still be visible on the box.  If you plan to a
 crackle finish on the sides and of the bottom of the box, then paint the outside of the box bottom as well.  Let
 dry thoroughly. Wash the sponge paint tool.

3.   Using the Crackle Medium, apply a fairly thick layer to the top of the lid only with a sponge brush. The thicker
 the coat of medium, the larger the cracks will be on the next coat.  Let dry thoroughly.

4.   Using the Cinnamon Red paint, paint onto the box being sure you only paint in one direction. In other words, do  
 not paint in a back and forth motion over the crackle medium.  Start painting from one side, continue in the
 same direction, and repeat this procedure until the entire surface is covered.  Otherwise, the crackle process will
 not occur, and you will end up with a mess!  Lightly paint the cinnamon red over the green where there is no
 Crackle medium so that the green under layer still shows through.  Let dry.

5.   Spray the outside of the box bottom with the Walnut Ink. Let sit for a minute or so, and then wipe off with a
 paper towel or a baby wipe.  The ink should settle in the imprinted words on the box and give them a nice
 distressed look.  Repeat with the outer lid.

6.   Using a finger, rub the Copper metallic on the corners and various areas of the box to highlight.

7.   Cut three strips of striped paper 3/8” wide. Using either the Tacky Glue or the PVA Glue, wrap and glue these
 strips around the outside of the lid. Let dry.

8.   Re-attach the hardware to the box.

9.   Cut the bronze hand-made paper to fit inside the lid and the bottom of the box. (I am not giving measurements
 here because each box is a different size. You will need to measure your particular box for size).

10. Using the colored pencils, color in the Cornucopia clip art picture as desired.  Tear around the edges.

11. Create the quote with computer software. The quote that I used says, “Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way” (Native American Saying).

12. Stamp the words “Harvest,” “Thanksgiving,” “being blessed,” and “beyond grateful” randomly on the piece of bronze paper for the lid with Jardine ink.  Tear around the quote. Distress the edges of the quote and the cornucopia with Coffee ink.  Glue the Cornucopia to the bronze paper (see picture for placement). Using vellum tape, attach the quote to the bronze paper. Attach 3 of the leaf brads. Glue this insert panel to the inside of the lid (Make sure you position it correctly so when you open the box it isn’t upside down!).

13. Glue the other piece of bronze paper to the bottom of the box.  Set aside and let dry.

14. While drying, create the leaf wreath by gluing various silk leaves around the grapevine. You can either use the Tacky Glue or the Hot Glue Gun for this process. Glue the berries, apple, and pear in a pleasing arrangement. Set aside.

15. Paint grunge board frame with Hunter Green acrylic paint. When dry, highlight with Copper Perfect Pearls. Attach 2 copper snaps with a Crop-a-dile tool.

16. Cut a piece of bronze paper to fit the frame and stamp the word “thanks” with Noir Black ink.  Adhere to the frame and then attach frame piece to the top of the box lid.

17. Stamp the phrase “Traditions, a legacy of love” onto the right front panel of the box and on the top of the box lid with Noir Black ink.  Spell out the word ‘giving’ with the alphabet stamps and stamp in Noir Black ink above the frame.

18. Glue the leaf wreath to the top of the box lid.

19. Cut 2 library pockets using the Cricut set at 9½” from a sheet of 12” x 12” ivory paper.

20. Cut 2 bevel-top tags using the Cricut set at 5” from a sheet of 12” x 12” ivory paper.

21. Pick papers from the Erie Paper Collection to decorate the fronts of the library pockets.  

For the sample pockets: I punched small leaves from a punch I found at the Dollar Store. The leaves and acorns were stamped with Coffee ink and matted onto a piece of colored cardstock.  Next, I wound a piece of scrapper’s floss around this panel. I layered on the left-over stripe strip from the strips used for the lid and attached some found letters in my stash. On the other pocket, I cut a colored background piece and layered a double-sided piece of paper over that.  The corner was folded down and anchored with a leaf brad. Then, I highlighted various areas of the green designed paper with Crystal Stickles by Ranger. 

22. Distress the edges of the tags with Coffee ink. Attach fibers through the holes in the tags.  Make a pocket for each member in your family and let them write down things they are thankful for during the year. Then, share these thoughts around the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day!

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