Donation box

What about some more recet crafting rather than cards that have been on my "to show" list for quite some time?
As I stopped by at my friend lately, I couldn't help but notice that his donation box was slowly but surely falling apart. In an attempt to cheer him up with a belated St. Nicholas/early Christmas present, I was thinking of a new box for a moment, but I quickly put the idea aside as I *really* should change crafting papers for books and get some stuff done for University. 
Still, the idea of a new box wouldn't go away. All in all, I could resist temptation for a couple of days (which I did use for anything but learning), until I decided to give it a go yesterday evening (crafting, not learning). 
My original idea was to create a nice outside with acrylic paint, some napkin decoupage or - trying a merger of paper and wood - a paper embroidered silver star. For the inside centerpiece, that would be seen most of the time as the box is to stand open, I imagined a winter scene with a couple of woooden reindeers I found at the crafting store lately. I wasn't sure about the details yet, but they would certainly include paper flowers and some glitter for the snow. 

However, due to the massive amount of time it takes to make the star, I decided to skip stitching it for the moment and focus on the inside instead. 

It took me quite a while to find the right background paper and for a first touch of winter, I decided to cover the blue and white shades with a layer of transparent paper with snowflakes. 
Then, I tried to figure out how to place the deer into a 3D winter landscape - long story short told, leftovers of white cardboard and 3D pads did the trick. Once the outline was set, I discovered I had plenty of empty space in the upper part of my project, which I tried to disguise with a strip of white lace. 

When everything was glued together, I placed a couple of paper flowers in the lower part and decorated te snowy hills with glitter snow. 

However, what I imagined would be a simple application of glitter from a tube, turned out to be a challenge of its own. At first, it wouldn't leave the tube. Then, the tube threw up all over my sweater and papers, meaning I had glitter everywhere except where I wanted to have it. In the end, I managed to apply a strip of glitter to each hill, but it looked rather like a fluorescent worm than a winter wonderland. Finally, in an attempt to save what could be saved, I used cotton swabs to make it all remotely look like artificial snow.

Is it just me in my first attempt of glitter snow or did I do something wrong from the very beginning? Anyhow, I'm just glad the mess I had is not visible anymore and now that everything is dry it even looks OK to me.

Anyway, as I still wasn't happy with all the empty snowflake space, I decided to apply a couple of silver star stickers from my stash - basically in parts where I glued the transparent paper to the surface and needed a little cover-up to hide the glue. To match the star stickers, I used a couple of alphabetic ones to create the word "Donation" instead of writing it on my own. However, I think I could have done better with more of the snowy hills that would automatically reduce the blank space above and at the same time enable me to make the "Donation" sign a little larger.

In the very end, I paced some tiny pearls on the lace and glued the whole scenery on a thick cardboard to prevent any bending. 

Given the way things turned out, I decided to throw my original plans overboard. Even though I planned to work on every single detail inside and outside, I suddenly realized one single centerpiece would be enough, and decided to leave the outside as it was - no details, no paint, no silver star. 
Another major deviation from what I imagined: instead of fixing the paper on the inside of the lid of the box as originally planned, I added a litle loop of white and silver ribbon to the back of the cardboard. The idea is to make sure I can take out the winter scene easily once warmer days come and replace it with something spring-ish, instead of making a whole new box when the season changes. Because a reindeer themed box would look a little weird at least by the end of January.

In the end, the only thing that disturbs me a llittle bit is the strip of glue that can be seen on the side of the transparent paper. Instead of starting another cover-up project, I'll just keep telling myself that this part will probably be in the shade of the lid itself, and therefore barely visible. 
*It will not be visible. It's all good. It will not be visible. Relax.*
The box itself is not only all done, but already delivered - alongside with the wish it shall always be full. To be seen, and filled, in the beautiful chapel of Ljubljana castle ;)

A little contribution to the December collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "Christmas/winter"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- gem of a challenge: animals in the snow
- as you like it: favourite animal (basically every living thing except the "scary" ones, but of course due to the season, reindeer are first who come to mind - I would certainly want to see them in real life once, with or without slay)
- basteltraum: Christmas/winter/stardust
- cardmania: Christmas
- come and get it: Christmas
- crafty calendar: Christmas
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "let it snow"
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative inspirations: winter/Christmas
- creative moments: ATG
- friendship challenge: Christmas
- fussy and fancy: blue & brown winter
- glitternsparkle: ATG
- inspiration destination: ATG
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- modsquad: what a flake
- path of positivity: festivity (festive cheer-up for a friend) 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: Christmas
- crazy challenge: ATG
- male room: Christmas/winter wishes/December celebrations
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- tuesday throwdown: Christmas scene
- use your stuff: woodgrain
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG