The AWESOME Wonder Woman Project

Some days I wonder if I should just call myself a Crafty Nerd; seriously, those two little words sum up a lot of my personality. As soon as it popped into my head I had to laugh because I instantly thought about the Witch from ‘Brave;’ she was the Crafty Carver.  She conjures up all sorts of fun things with her glorious magic! I’m definitely not putting myself in with the awesome likes of the Crafty Carver, but the name sure wants to stick and makes me laugh every time I think about it.

About a month or so ago I got an e-vite to one of my friends birthday parties. I have to think back exactly HOW long I’ve known Melissa. I had to ask my Bestie, and we’ve surmised that we’ve known Melissa since 2009. Then I asked Melissa and she says 2004 or 2005. Either way, it's been awhile. Since I've met her she’s been a source of information for me. She, God love her, gives me the truth, straight up with no chaser. THAT is why I adore her so much! She has gingerly pointed me towards some hard lessons that I indeed needed to learn, and the best advice she ever gave me was, “If it doesn’t take time you are doing it wrong.”

Melissa is a HUGE fan of Wonder Woman, and foxes; not necessarily in that order! Whenever I see either one of those two things my mind goes directly to her. It seems like I’m always sending her Wonder Woman paraphernalia or pictures of foxes!  Yes, yes…. I am THAT friend. Always the bad influence sending pictures, text messages, or emailing things I think you might like; just another reason that Pinterest is SUCH a time waster, and Godsend all in one spot.

<3 Melissa and Claira <3

I guess it was a year or so ago I saw a Wonder Woman box, and just HAD to show Melissa! She ooohhhhh’d and ahhhhhhh’d over it, until I told her the price. $50 was the price on that lovely piece of Wonder Woman awesomeness. It was probably $50 too much to spend at the time, as it always is when you have a family to think about first. It wasn’t a big box either. I could tell that a lot of time and effort went into painting it, but it was SO cool none the less. So when I got the e-vite my mind went STRAIGHT to the box! I thought to myself, “Heck! It’s not THAT hard! I can DO that!” So began the hunt for a wooden box, which I picked up at Hobby Lobby (another crafting black hole for people like me AND one of my FAVORITE places to shop) and picked up one for about $10. PLUS, the fact that it had a handle, a latch, and it was totally portable; my mind swam with all the things you could put in there!

My mom always said that every girl should have a keepsake box, a box that you put your most private “stuff” in. My mom passed hers down to me, and I kept all sorts of girlish goodies in there. Now the box has a place of honor in our nursery, and it has been our diaper holder for the last six and a half years! It’s the perfect size, and someday soon when we are done with diaper duty I will pass it down to my girls. Its a little worse for wear, but nothing my husband won’t be able to fix when the time comes.

So after my box idea came, the keepsake box idea came even bigger and better,  and all sorts of other ideas on what to put inside the box! I don’t know if Melissa has a keepsake box, but if she doesn’t, I hope that she loves the box as much as I loved making it for her. 

In the beginning it's always a rough start...

We've got stars people! We've got stars!

So I wanted something FUN on the inside. 

My most awesome work Bestie Noelle went to Newcastle Comics and picked me up a great Wonder Woman comic book! So what better to do with it then decoupage the inside of the box with it! Let me tell you it was a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be, but honestly I don't think it turned out half bad. The picture above still has the Mod Podge all over it!

Starting the stencil

BEST way to transfer ANY image to wood is to find your image and put it up to the window with the image facing to the outside. The light from the outside will stream thru the paper and allow you to draw the image on the back of the piece of paper. Once you've drawn your image with pencil and ONLY pencil (you need the graphite to transfer - see below) cut around the outside and then you can place the image where you want to transfer it to and retrace on top of the image. With the graphite on the back, and you drawing over it on the top of the image, the graphite will transfer onto your surface. Works great on wood! 

See the pencil on the back?

Et VIOLA!

Then you can paint this bad boy!

Painted the top red to match her KICK ASS COSTUME!

This is what the inside bottom looked like after the glue dried.

This is all I used.

Whole thing top and bottom.

And seriously what goes perfect with that box??? A BAG!!!

Seriously all I did was take one black commercial bag, went to the interwebs and typed in "Wonder Woman Free Printable Images" and BAM! All this awesomeness came up and I printed like crazy, then cut like crazy, and then glued like crazy. This is what the craziness looked like when it was finished.

Here's the other side!

And here is Melissa, in all of her Wonder Woman Awesomeness! Happy Birthday my dear friend! You bring so much joy to so many people! May you live for another 40 PLUS years! <3