box art

a few weeks ago my good friend, summer, commissioned a piece of my box art. she wanted me to create a picture of a girl with a horse for her niece, kinley's, birthday. i had never been hired to do a piece of personal artwork for someone before, so i was a bit more than nervous. besides, i don't really know a lot about horses.

the thought of the picture never really strayed far from my mind. i was constantly going to my cupboards to just look at boxes. it sort of made me lose my appetite, because all the boxes were so frustrating. i know, who would have thought? i tried so many different ways to create a horse. the grossest of which was the photo of a roasted turkey from a stuffing box...that was morbid, but i couldn't find anything that would pass as horse-like.

finally, on a trip to the grocery store (not in a swimsuit, because by now i had discovered that it made people uncomfortable) i saw a box of western family instant oatmeal. first of all, hello?, it's WESTERN family, that should be a good indicator of fine horse material. secondly, it was oatmeal...and don't horses eat oats sometimes? thirdly, the box was literally covered with a giant photo...which was good, because the horse was going to be rather large. SCORE!

so, that got the project in motion. my second perfect discovery was that a werther's original candy looks an awful lot like the top of a cowboy hat. so, the design began. i also used the shiny werther's wrapper to make the belt buckle...it has a 'w' which is what kinley's last name begins with. the only thing i couldn't get past, was the fact that it didn't really resemble anything i created, so i had to throw some brightly colored flowers into the mix. kinley is only 8 (i think) so i figured she might like bright colors, too.

anyway, here is the finished product. summer seemed to like it, but she's also very nice to me, so maybe she was just humoring me. i hope not. i sort of liked the finished product. but mostly, i hope kinley likes it. by the way, happy late birthday kinley!



here are the cowboy hat and horse close up. i try to make as few cuts as possible, so it's always really exciting when i can find something that works just right.



i came up with the idea for "box art" when i had a pay-it-forward post on my blog. i needed a relatively inexpensive form of art to create for the people who commented. not that those people didn't deserve something more costly, but art supplies just weren't/aren't in my budget. when the idea came to me, i wasn't sure if i could pull it off, i quite often have delightful little ideas that never come to fruition. but i was pleased when it seemed to work.

here is the first one i created. it was for autumn. i had seen a picture that was similar to this, so i sort of mimicked the artwork in a new form.



autumn really enjoys reading and when we were in school together she had really long brown hair, so i tried to incorporate those images.



the next one i did for my friend, jalynn. she is a little mom now, who lived in england. as you may know, i love umbrellas and for some reason they remind me of england. i have a print that is similar to this, as well, that i swirled around and manipulated into this:



my favorite part of this one was the dog. he was made with ONE cut out of a cookie crisp box. i love him.



only one other person commented on my p-i-f blog, that was my cousin, christin. now, don't think i've forgotten about you, christin, i've got something major in the works. i still have 6 more months before my year is up, though, so don't be checking the mailbox with too much enthusiasm.

anyway, i just wanted to thank summer for putting her faith in my box cutting skills. i truly hope she's happy with what i came up with. it was a lot of stress...but so much fun. thanks sum!