Inspired by Me and Annabel Lee's DIY Skull Wine Box

I shared a link to Me and Annabel Lee's Skull Wine Box DIY on Facebook one day and my bestie, Ilona, fell in love with the project. 

So we decided to have a craft day and give it a try. She ordered the stencils, wood icing textura paste, putty knives, and the rub n buff sampler set. I was in charge of paint and the wine boxes and whatever other miscellaneous supplies we needed (I have an entire room of craft supplies).

I couldn't find any of the wine boxes at local resale stores (just because I wanted them, I've seen them a million times when that wasn't what I was looking for). 

So my husband made a few for us. They are not exactly the same as the one Alexandra used but they are pretty awesome. A solid wood box that is very sturdy with a metal handle. I think I'm going to have hubby make a bunch of them and I'm going to play with many different styles of decorating them.

I also ordered a couple Papier-mâché wine boxes I found at ConsumerCrafts.com. These ones are light weight and have a lid. 

So here's what Ilona and I made on our craft day.




 Ilona bought quite a selection of stencils so I experimented with some other designs and made these guys below.



These were just plain T-Rex stencils. After they were dry and painted I added little Santa hats, drilled a hole in the top of each one and added hooks so she can hang them on her tree.

After our craft day I decided I wanted to do more. The skull stencils were kinda small in comparison with the wine boxes. Perfect for smaller projects but I think the wine boxes needed something bigger that stood out more to get that wow effect.

Not that our first creations aren't cute as hell. I adore them. So much so that I probably won't be giving away my first one. I'm weird like that. Giving away the first of one of my creations is like giving away my first born.

Anyway, I know Ilona was really in love with skull Alexandra used in her DIY so I went hunting for it so I could make a wine box and surprise Ilona with it for Christmas.

I searched Amazon for skull stencils. After about five pages of options I finally found it. It is the Andy Skinner Day of The Dead Mixed Media Stencil.

I still had a couple boxes we hadn't used so I gave it a try...and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.




I used red wax over the raised textura paste area and silver wax on the empty skull space to give the illusion of an entire skull. 

When I first started with the silver wax I thought I ruined the project. But I kept using it and was shocked at how awesome it looked when I finished. I chalk that up to sheer luck and the willingness to experiment. Sometimes things turn out better than expected.

I'm in love with the textura paste. I had no idea this stuff even existed. I have so many project ideas in my head now. Thank you Alexandra for another great craft supply suggestion. I have learned of so many new techniques and crafty supplies from reading her blog.

I do want to mention one tip Alexandra didn't mention in her DIY for the skull- if you want to save your stencil wash it right after taking it off the box. Otherwise the paste dries and will not come off. I learned that the hard way on craft day one. A couple of the stencils were toast because we didn't clean them right away. I tried cleaning mine later and it ripped the poor thing to bits. So this time I wiped the stencil down with paper towel immediately after using it to get all the thick paste off then I washed it gently in soap and water. This made the stencil good as new and ready to use again.



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