After Valentine's Day 2009

Now that Valentine's Day is over, it is prime time to scoop the after-holiday bargains that can be used to make very nice quality scottie items to sell in future bazaars, or just to keep. This heart shaped box with beautiful graphics sold for only $2.00 at T.J.Maxx several years back-about 2 weeks after Valentine's Day had passed. I bought 4, and in the picture that you are viewing is a top, bottom, and inside. I especially liked the clear see through window of plastic on the top. (So before you ditch any candy boxes, stationery boxes, heavy gauge perfume/soap/ or condiment boxes that are attractive and sturdy , give them a good once over to see if there are decorating possibilities if you add a touch of scottie.)

I flipped the top over, and glued a decorative lace doily on the inside of the clear window, anchoring the lace at the very edges so that no glue showed when the item was right side up.

Here is a collection of the doilies I find in my travels-usually in sellout clearance sections from places like Hobby Lobby(where most of these are from), Michael's, Joann's, Big Lots, etc. Rummage sales and antique stores also will sometimes bundle these for a low price.

Next I decided on my focal point. In this case I either downloaded this picture off of an ebay item that was being sold, or used a greeting card. When I download off the internet, I copy onto colored parchment. Places like Office Max carry heavy stock colored parchment and this color is either a coffee shade or ecru-it gives the picture an antique hue. I carefully tore the card in a assymetrical predetermined shape, then lightly deckled the edge with a gold metallic acrylic paint applied with a fine paint brush.

Here are examples of the parchment colors that make a normal copied picture look
instantly antiqued.




Since the box is of a Victorian design, I then asked a friend to lend her expert touch (Thank you Lisa) because she has a knack for how to add the buttons, lace, ribbon, and baby's breath that are the accents. As you can see, she went into her button box and laid small off-white buttons of differing sizes around the perimeter of the window. Then she added fillers of Victorian design-bows, lace, a butterfly, a sprig of baby's breath, a heart-and other filigree decor glue-ons (findings) that you can gather or buy in premixed bags at places like Michael's if you don't have them lying around. Since we all don't have a 'Lisa" in our life, I would suggest that you go to the library into the handicraft section(located around the knitting books) and there are always a few books on Victorian crafts-you'll have more ideas to copy than you'll ever need-and you will very quickly get the feeling for what Victorian includes. If you have a button that you want to glue down but the shank interfers, cut off the shank with a shank snipper-or wire cutters-sand flat, and glue it down. Pictured below is a picture of the shank snippers that most good fabric stores carry-usually close to their quilting section. I use this alot for stuff the wire cutters can't get close enough to because they are curved.



The nice thing about this particular box was that the decos gave the impression of being glued
right down on the lace, however are glued on top of the plastic see-through part of the lid. This gives the box a depth I hadn't anticipated.




Here is a full shot of the finished product. Not just for Valentine's Day, it could be used for a touch of scottie anywhere in the house.

Here are some containers I have stashed that came with other products in them that are covered with dust and are begging to be scottified. The plaid is a wine carrier, the gold had shortbread cookies, and the wooden had soaps.