Altered Sewing Box

I had been given a large Altoids box (about 6" x 4") and I decided to alter it into a sewing kit.  I started off by painting gesso all over it and letting that dry.  As I knew I was going to add a crackle finish to it, I didn't worry about making it perfectly smooth.

Once the gesso was dry, I painted it with Distress Paints (weathered wood, stormy sky, vintage photo), again not worrying about streaks.  After going over different areas a few times, I stamped some of the images from the Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Haberdashery set.  I wasn't worried about the entire image being stamped onto the lid either - it made it look more worn out to me.

The final step for the lid itself was to add Ranger's Crackle Paint and let it dry overnight.  I did add some Distress Inks after it was dry to enhance some of the cracks and a bit of Tim Holtz Ruler Ribbon was adhered along the edge of the entire box.

Next came out some dies and grungeboard hinges.  I used the rusted enamel technique for the hinges.  Although I learned it from Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 online class (highly recommend), it can also be seen in several You-Tube videos.  The sewing machine is a die from Die-Versions and I applied the tarnished silver technique to it (from Tim's Creative Chemistry 102 class).  Love how pitted it looks.  The spools and needle and thread are Memory Box dies.  I wrapped embroidery floss around the spools of thread and also threaded each of the vintage buttons with embroidery floss.

For the inside, I adhered a magnetic strip to the inside top of the lid to hold loose items and then added your basic sewing kit supplies into the inside.

Now all the basics for sewing on a button (about the extent of my sewing ability) is all in one place.