Bedside table Part III - the final chapter!

Yep, there's still a little time to enter the giveaway!

Missed parts one and two of this little project?

Hiding the clutter you absolutely cannot get rid of is right up my alley. But discovered that sometimes you have to hide the clutter hider! Box, box, who's got a box? I've got a box! but it's an ugly shoe box with crinkle and wrinkles and price stickers. But the box size fit perfectly into that other section of my bedside table so idea hunting I went. I knew I'd have to cover the box but I certainly don't have enough beautiful craft type paper for that sort of project so I went to my recent favorite standby - newspaper.

I took some time and cut out all sorts of articles - but just the words. Then I eyeballed them to the box and glued them on in every which direction. Overlapped, sideways, upside down with no rhyme or reason but to cover the box thoroughly. I can be a pretty linear person about things needing to be straight and matching so this was pretty cathartic!

Once I was done with the newspapering I wanted to apply something else, and inspired by this post at Celebrate Creativity, I decided a floral would be nice! Not floral like the mid to late 1990's floral -I've been looking at old magazines and my eyes practically melted out of their sockets at the pattern overload! - but something simple.

I didn't have any stencils but I do still have the giant case of stamps my cousin Dawn loaned me so I dug around in there until I found these Stampin' Up! beauties of paperwhite narcissus and allium.

Using black ink and making up a pattern as I went along I stamped my box. If you are going to undertake a project like this be warned that stamping something like a shoebox is not the easiest thing in the world. It's flimsy the farther away you get from the edges and wants to buckle so you have to place your hand on the underside to get a solid stamping on it. Not all of my stamps turned out so perfect but that has a nice, vintage appeal to it that I don't mind at all.

To get the flowers to stamp along the sides, I took the lid off, stamped, replaced the lid and applied just the top flower portion, matching it up to the stems as best I could.

Yeah, I'm not an expert stamper by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm happy with the results and now I don't have to look at any more clutter! And since the shoes (and therefore shoebox) were free thanks to a giftcard* this whole project cost me nothing but time.

*Can I brag for a minute? I got the shoes on super clearance for twelve dollars and got a free shipping deal so I was able to get the shoes and a sweater for my $25 gift card! How's that for a deal?