Painted Mittens Gift Box Or Artful Winter Decor!

I've dusted this one off from the archives as it goes wonderfully well with my latest cereal box doodle umbrella craft! Enjoy.

Ready to practice your painting and drawing skills and make the funnest winter themed gift box ever? What can I tell you, this one is a winner, not just the color combo, but the fun artful style, and the fact that it looks much more complicated than it really is! This winter clothes theme came about because I painted an ugly sweater for Chanukah, and then a graffiti ski cap, so mittens were a natural fit for my theme, and mittens with pom poms, is there anything cuter? So whether you follow my technique or not, do think about packaging your gifts this year in recycled containers that you've repurposed, or painted or made yourself, it makes gift giving that much more meaningful! Okay, lets get started!

Bet you didn't think the box had winter hats on it also, right? You could also consider making gift tags that in the shape of hats, and mittens covering your boxes or even gift bags!
You'll Need:

• a recycled box (my mitten box held an etrog, the bottom box is from aluminum foil)
• acrylic paint
• a large paint brush (a chip brush or small brush for painting walls)
• a white paint pen
• a black permanent marker with a medium nib
• hot glue (optional)
  
  

How To:

1. Open up your box at the seams for the mittens box, and work on the non-printed side with the box flat. For the all over pattern box you can just make brush strokes on the printed side of the box, no need to open it up.
2. Using three colors of paint make splatters of paint all over the box. Do this inside a huge box, on a tarp or on the floor of the garage where it may not matter if paint is everywhere. Make your paint runny by adding water, dip brush in paint and with the flick of your wrist splatter away. Set aside to dry.
3. Once totally dry, draw outlines of hats and mittens on the box, and then paint AROUND your shapes such that you end up with hats and mittens patterned with paint splatters.
4. Add pom poms to your mittens and hats by painting a round circle of solid color, and when that is dry add dots and lines with a white paint pen to indicate the yarn, including little dots of black towards the middle, and little lines all around to the outside.
5. Now add more details to indicate the ribbing of the hat and mittens, and some little stars, dots and tiny circles in the background, and set aside to dry.
6. Re-glue your box, using a glue gun and voila! Mine is currently being used as holiday decorations as it is just too darn cute!

The box with splatters!

The painted box, whoops not in the color I wanted, so I painted over it.That is it, you gift giving will never look the same again, enjoy!