Ballard Design DIY...

Well, when I got my Ballard Design catalog in the mail, I fell in love with a couple of things. Then I saw the prices. Ya'll saw these cute storage boxes right?

Ummmmmmmmmm, $30, for 5 boxes, made of paper? Yeah, I'll pass.

So, I decided to set out to make these myself. It started with a 3 piece set of paper mache boxes I already had in my stash. And tho I liked the postmark stamp/script print on the Ballard boxes, I have none of those stamps or that type of scrapbook paper, so instead, I scored a couple of sheet music books from the local thrift store for .99 cents a piece. Then, I modge podged to my hearts content.

Once I got them covered in the sheet music, I trimmed the edges with an exacto knife, and then trimmed them in black satin ribbon with my hot glue gun. (I only suffered minor burns with this glue gun experience, so I was quite pleased.)

When it came time for the silhouettes, theres a few things you can do. Freehand them (I am NOT that talented, but I'm sure some of you are). Look for free printables online. Or, pick up old silhouettes at garage sales and thrift stores to use as templates in your future projects!

All in all I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. And one thing I did different...I noticed the inside of Ballard's boxes were decorated. I plan on stashing these babies full, so no one needs to look inside. So instead of going to all that trouble, I just painted the inside white.

So whaddya think? Mine cost under $10...much much better...