Altered Cigar Box

I am part of a great online group that does some great projects. One of their latest challenges was to do an altered cigar box. I have never done an altered cigar box so I decided to sign up for this challenge.

I couldn't decide what to do!! I had this beautiful teak cigar box that I had brought from Cuba. I was sort of hoarding it but I decided to use it so that someone could really enjoy it.

I was stuck because I really didn't want to paint over the beautiful wood and ruin it's authenticity but I couldn't send just the box either!

I must have seen dozens of youtube videos on altered cigar boxes and I realized that what I DIDN'T like was too much "stuff" on the box. I like the simpler ones much better than the ones that had so much "stuff" on them.

Now, what color???? I really don't know what color my partner likes. But I figure EVERYONE has to like cobalt teal right? So I painted the top in cobalt teal and then covered it with the clear Distress Crackle. (Can't really see it on the picture but it looks very cool - very subtle.)

I then painted the inside bottom with the teal also. I didn't want to paint the inside top because, again, I thought it would be great to keep some of the box's authenticity. Besides, on the top there was a Cohiba label I did not want to remove or cover.

Okay, so now what? As usual I had no plan. I envy those artists that can plan out step by step what they are going to do and then just do it. I just can't do that.

The next thing I did was to stamp the top of the box with Wend Vecchi's lace stamp using Gathered Twigs Distress pad. It came out really nice. So now I have the color pallet - blue and brown. Not my usual palette but somehow it made sense for a cigar box.

I know that everyone usually puts tons of flowers and lace on these boxes and its very pretty - but its not me. I like a more "clean" look. I used some lace, some Wendy Vecchi art parts and some Donna Downey flower lace and came up with this cover for my cigar box.

I have to admit I was tempted to put lace all around the box but honestly only because it seemed that everyone else did. I am not the "ruffly" type.

Finally, I put some "feet" to it with Tim Holtz's foundations box feet.

I don't think receiving an empty box is fun so now I had to figure out what to put in it! I was going to put them different "art related" things in the box. But how impersonal is THAT? Finally, I decided to make a travel journal for my partner. I don't know what she likes or what she wants but I figured everyone can find use for a travel journal right?

So I made this journal. I made the same flowers for the journal that I made for the lid of the cigar box to tie it in and also used the same brown flower lace. It came out really cute.

I added a really beautiful stamp:

Finally, I wrapped it all up in teal tissue paper, added some more of the flower lace and it's on it's way to Nicole!!

Enjoy!