We interrupt your regularly scheduled…

…party preparations for a little Before and AFter! 
I hate painting.  HATE it.  But I did a lot of it today. 
So as soon as my dad and husband weren’t looking, I did a fun project.  I made this:

Into this:

(I’d sure like to know how Layla at The Lettered Cottage does that B&A picture thing.  It would be cool here, right?)

I’ve been looking for storage baskets for under my coffee table for a few weeks now.  They are to store toys, and I didn’t want the toys to be seen.  They had to be light weight, and probably most important, cheap.  Not an easy find.

But in the process, I realized that a diaper box fits perfectly on that shelf.  Three or four of them would give me a ton of storage, and the option to sort the toys so Adam can pull out just what he wants.  (Amazingly, the kid picks up after himself sometimes.  He must have learned it at daycare, because he didn’t learn it from us!)

But c’mon!  I’m not going to have diaper boxes hanging out in my living room!  So how do you make a diaper box pretty? Burlap, hot glue, ribbon, cardstock, and coffee!

So first, I primed with gray.  Not a good idea.  I’ll show you why, later.  I should have hauled my lazy butt to the basement to get the white.  But I had to cover the bright yellow with something, and as I said, I have a lazy butt.
Next, start with the burlap.  I left the flappy-thingies on, and started by wrapping some burlap around them and securing with hot glue.

After I wrapped the flappy-thingy (technical term, here), I folded it down.
And pulled the burlap down the side and glued.
I have found that with burlap, it works best if you glue a couple of inches, and use the fancy-schmancy tool (stem of a fake flower) to burnish the burlap and pull it tight as you go.
After doing both ends, I measured a piece of burlap to wrap around the long sides. I centered it on the back and glued it on using the same “burnish with a stem” technique.
Then I had these ugly seams. 
So I folded them under, and glued them down.
Keep wrapping and gluing until you’re all the way around.
Fold and glue the ugly seams.
Stand back, and decide it needs a little something. Glue some black satin ribbon around the top and bottom.
Get out your handy dandy tag punch from Creative Memories.

(Okay, see the gray spots on the box on the pictures above?  That’s where the gray primer is showing through.  Blech.  Luckily, you can’t see it as much in person.  The flash really brings it out.)
Whoa!  That bright white cardstock is, well, too bright!  Enter the leftover coffee from this morning. I let it soak for a few minutes, dried with the hair dryer, and distressed it using one of those chalky thingies for scrapbooking.  I’m not sure what to write on it yet, though.  Maybe just numbers (I’ll hate it if Adam puts them back out of order, though) or the name of the toys – blocks, tractors, puzzles, food (but what if we decide to change categories?)  I don’t know…any suggestions?


Total cost:

Diaper box: Free
Burlap: $1.99/yard at Hobby Lobby.  I used less than a yard.
Ribbon: $1.99 at Hobby Lobby – TONS left.
Hot glue: Who knows?
Tag: um…pennies?
I love it!  And I have to thank the bloggie world for introducing me to burlap!  I love neutrals in my home, but need some texture, and burlap is perfect!

Okay – now for the linky parties: