I love a DIY that uses ordinary items and turns them into extraordinary things! Today’s project does just that! I’m creating a beautiful planter box that will look like leather and wood, but it’s really made out of a simple tissue box! So as the season changes, and your allergies kick up, save those tissue boxes and turn them into beautiful pieces you can use around the house or even give as gifts. I found these cute little numbers on www.cremedelacraft.com. They have adorable DIY projects and I’m excited to give one of them a try. Here is how to get started.
You Will Need:
- Empty tissue box
- Plastic cups
- Mod Podge
- Sponge brush
- Newspaper or scrapbook paper
- 2 draw pulls
- Hot glue gun/glue sticks
- Leather ribbon (i used ¾” width)
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Optional: acrylic paint in brown to make this look rustic and made out of leather or wood.
NOTE: I like using the long large family pack boxes so I can fit lots of flowers in mine, but this will work on any size you have…you will just have to adjust the plastic cup size.
How-To:
1. Make sure your tissue box is clean and empty. You don’t want little tissues hanging out in the bottom.
2. Take off the plastic part of the top of the tissue box and discard it.
3. Take your ruler and measure how tall your tissue box is inside (this will be slightly smaller than the outside dimension depending of the thickness of the tissue box).
4. Take that measurement and cut your plastic cups to 1/8” smaller.
5. Dry fit the cups inside the tissue box to make sure they fit, and to see how many you need for this project. Make sure that the opening of the box is big enough for the side cups to hold water and flowers. If not, cut a bit of the top of your tissue box to assure that they will all fit.
6. Remove the cups and set them aside.
7. Take your newspaper or scrapbook paper and rip it into strips of all shapes and sizes.
8. Add Mod Podge with your sponge brush to the outside of your tissue box one section at a time. It needs to stay wet, so judge how large of an area you can cover at a time.
9. Immediately add the strips of paper to the Mod Podge and then cover it with a coat of Mod Podge again. Set aside to dry.
10. If you would like to change the color of your planter, this is the time to do it. Since we don’t want to cover up the words on the newspaper or the design on the scrap paper, water down your acrylic paint so that it is more of a “wash” than a true paint. Depending on how much you want to see the underneath, add more or less water to the paint.
11. Once dry, you can add the decorative accents that really make this project seem so high-tone! Using your pencil, mark all the way around the box where you would like your leather ribbon to land. I’m going 1 ¾” up from the bottom.
12. Attach your leather where your lines are using a hot glue gun. If the corners of the leather ribbon are a bit rigid and don’t want to bed, then dry-fit your ribbon on the box and mark the corners. Then bend them back and forth before you attach them at the corners so they are more pliable.
13. Using hot glue, add your drawer pulls to the outer edges of your tissue box.
14. Fill the top of the box with your plastic cups.
15. Add water and start adding flowers, then set this on your counter, coffee table or mantle and enjoy!