Upcycled Stella & Dot Box

I don't know about you but anytime I come home to find a package with my name on it excitement takes over as if I am a twelve-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. Even when I place an online order and know exactly what it is, I am still overjoyed.  Now if you have ever ordered from Stella & Dot you know that they make sure that excitement continues as you slowly unwrap your beautiful new jewelry.  They know how to do it right.

On my long list of hobbies, one of my favorites is being a Stella & Dot stylist.  This means that I have received MANY packages from them, most of them being jewelry I earned for free.  Anyways, that leaves me with a bunch of boxes that I cannot get myself to throw away because they look like this:

Adorable, right? So when I was reorganizing my closet, I realized that I had a lot of washcloths that I wanted to store neatly.  Being on budget I did not want to go buy more organizational containers so I started walking around my home in search of something to hold the washcloths.  Then I stumbled upon my Stella & Dot boxes and decided to finally put them to use.

First I sliced off the top flaps with a razor blade.

Then carefully pulled apart the flaps that were glued together and unfolded.

Then I re-assembled it but in reverse so the pretty pattern was on the outside.  I hot glued the flaps together so it would hold shape.  Then I added some ribbon (found at the dollar store that matched perfectly!) to the top to make clean, prettier edges.

One of the boxes experienced a tougher journey to my doorstep so I trimmed it down a bit to get rid of the damaged corners.  That is why there are two sizes pictured here.  Not too shabby for using less than one dollar's worth of ribbon.  Another reason to love Stella & Dot :)

DIY Chalkboard Platter

Over the holidays I was asked to bring an appetizer to one of the dinners.  I knew that dinner was going to be filling so I wanted to bring something light yet festive.  Immediately I decided to prepare an antipasto platter with goodies from my favorite local Italian market, Rubino's Italian Imports.

The presentation of an antipasto is just as important as the taste.  I remember when I was a waitress at a family-owned Italian restaurant, we treated each antipasto platter as a work of art and took pride in each order.  

I had an idea in mind and thanks to Goodwill, my new favorite chalkboard spray paint and this pin... my idea came to life. After a few trips to Goodwill I found THE PERFECT frame.  It didn't have glass but instead a clear plastic sheet (not shown).

And look how much (or should I say how little) it was...

All I did was remove the clear plastic sleeve (glass in most frames) and spray paint it with the chalkboard spray paint. After I replaced it I also hot glued felt to the bottom just so it wouldn't damage the tables.

Here's the finished product! As you can see my antipasto had salami, prosciutto, marinated olives (my favorite at Rubino's), provolone, pecorino, mozzarella, pepperoncini, eggplant caponata and some fresh Italian bread.  I just used dishes from my cabinets to add different heights and color.  So pretty and so yummy!

  

Don't worry, I will post the tutorial for the mini chalkboard clips later so stay tuned.  They were a perfect leave-behind gift for the hostess.

*Note: when using your own chalkboard paint, condition the surface by taking the side of the chalk (long side) and chalk up the whole thing.  Then just wipe it off.  This will make it easier to erase marks in the future.  Otherwise the initial marks may stay.