Surprise Box Challenge: Christmas Edition

Recently I was invited to join my good friend Terrie over at Decorate and More With Tip on a really fun challenge. She has done this previously with a group of bloggers but this is the first time I have participated.

Here is what we did: All of the bloggers who are participating drew names. Each person went and purchased $10 worth of craft supplies or random items from any store they preferred and mailed it to the person whose name they drew. In return we each received a surprise box as well. One we received the box of items we had to make something using the items.

I got my box from Shae over at Sweet Southern Grace. Luckily Shae and I have been friends for a while so she knows the sorts of things that fit well into my style.

In my box I received 2 items: a wreath form made from unfinished wooden beads and a candle ring made of faux Lamb’s Ear.

Clearly the obvious choice would have been to make a wreath but that didn’t seem like to much of a challenge to me so I tried to think outside of the box.

I started by measuring the inside diameter of my wooden bead circle and then using a finish nail and a piece of string I drew a circle that would fit inside the wreath form.

I cut it out with my jigsaw and sanded it well.

Next I used wood glue to attach the wooden bead wreath to the outer edge of my wooden circle. I held it in place with tape while it dried.

After it was dry and secure I applied a coat of Minwax stain in the color Early American over the entire piece.

When the stain was dry to the touch I painted everything with 2 coats of homemade chalk paint in the color White Dove.

Next came the sanding……lots of distressing to this piece. It needed to be quite chippy for the look I was going for.

Now I needed a base for this piece so I looked and looked until I found an unfinished wood container that I had planned to use for floral arrangements or maybe as a pencil holder or some other similar use.

Until now!

Just like I did with the top of the pedestal, I stained the base with Minwax Early American stain.

Next I painted it with my homemade chalk paint in White Dove (Benjamin Moore).

And finally I sanded it and distressed it to make it look like the top.

I glued it onto the top upside down so that the solid bottom of this container was being glued to the underside of the pedestal. This gave me a better surface to glue and make it more secure plus I liked the look of it larger at the bottom.

A quick coat or two of a spray varnish in a matte finish and it was good to go!

Now to style it!