Making no-sew fabric boxes is A LOT of fun! Now imagine combining your love for crafting with the great feeling of organizing something you need with beauty, or, giving the most special gift to a loved one!
Boxes of all sort of sizes and colors have been used for organization for centuries, and even though there are tons of them out there to be purchased, sometimes is hard to find a choice that will fit our needs.... plus, they won't be covered in our favorite fabrics and for me, as the cherry on top of the cake.. they won't be made by us, what means, we didn't have the pleasure of having fun gluing and seeing our creation taking form, right?
Not sure if you know me, but I'm Claudia Squio, cartonnage teacher and designer of ColorWay Arts, and author of the book "Cartonnage Basics & beyond", and I have been teaching cartonnage in local and online classes since 2014. I have created a wonderful community of cartonnage lovers with our Cartonnage Club, and what's most exciting today, is that the boxes I'm sharing were all made by my students, members of the Club that are having tons of fun gluing fabric and some of them even designing their own projects!
Now, before I go even further, I have to say that I'm always reluctant to share my students wonderful boxes because I can't share them all.... and I don't like leaving so many behind, but I decided that this time I would share anyway. So, if your box is not here, it doesn't mean that I didn't like it, it just mean that I had to choose just a few and this time I choose to share some of the latest different ones I'm seeing shared inside our community.
Seeing all the beautiful boxes that our cartonnage lovers are making make me feel so proud of each of them, and encourage me to keep creating and sharing, because at the end of the day, this is the part that I mostly love!
Let's start with the one that I was able to see in person yesterday and blown my mind. A few months ago, I gave the suggestion for our members, to think of something different that they could do combining their passions, or combining projects of the Club, or even combining them all.... So, our friend Donna D. who is a talented quilter and woodcarver and have been making incredible cartonnage boxes with us decided to combine her passions and created this wonderful box!
Look at the details, she carved 2 owls, then, she found this beautiful green fabric with leaves, and from then, she made the quilt art for outside and inside and made her "treasure chest" (which is a project of my book), and here we go:
Amazing, isn't it?
Not sure if you aware, but in Cartonnage (the name of the technique of making those fabric boxes), we don't need to sew (although Donna added fun sewing to make the art quilts!). To make the boxes it's all glued, great finishing, so fun, and last a long time (to not say forever, and of course, it will depend how much one uses).
Now, this next one I will share, impressed me also by the size! Debbie went above and beyond thinking and creating this amazing organizing box to fit her needs. I'm sure she has space for all her jewelry, plus the happiness of seeing this beauty every time she needs, will remind her how much fun she had making it!
In the box above, Debbie used many ideas that are taught inside the Club with our 60+ project's tutorials. And once one start making it, it's relatively easy to mix projects, add parts, remove parts and make to fit our needs.
But, not all members of the Club like designing and that's ok, that's one of the possibilities, but members can just have tons of fun making the projects as they were designed by me.
This next one was made by Ruth, who was in need of a box to organize her Cricut tools. So, she played with the boards and designs and here is what she came out! Isn't fun, beautiful and functional? Just as I love to say....the JOY of cartonnage (applies to all boxes!)
I bet we all have a box to organize our medicine right? Ok, but this next one is really special. Mary started from 2 of my DIY kits, and modified the project combining both to be able to make this amazing box as a gift to her grandson's first house....how nice!
Next, see what Amanda made after some modifications of another chest I have one online course. She simplifies the lid and created this great chest as a gift for a loved one who is an embroiderer lover. I bet she will put this to a great use!!
Well, I could keep going on and on to the infinity because we have so many wonderful boxes being made by our enthusiastic cartonnage lovers inside our Cartonnage Club.
But we don't make just big projects like that! Oh no... we can make such great small gifts, bookmarks, sewing kits, small boxes, notepad covers and a lot more!
Here are some beautiful sample of projects made by two of our Certified teachers who are helping spread the Joy around the World!
You see? With cardboard, fabric and glue we can create so many wonderful, sturdy and functional boxes and have tons of fun in the process!
I will start sharing more of our member's projects, because they inspire me so much and I hope they inspire you as well. To see many more incredible and beautiful boxes, I invite you to join our Facebook group Cartonnage Fabric boxes, and if you like the idea of creating unique boxes, consider joining our Club.... it's SO much fun and we have many benefits and you can choose the plan according with the benefits you want and you can stay for as long as you want (Hint: most members (60%) stay with us for more than a year!)
Click here to see all the benefits of becoming a member of the Cartonnage Club (and for a limited time get a special discount for the first month of the monthly plan, so you can try and see if that's for you!)
Well, that's it for today, thank you very much for all members of the Club and all other cartonnage lovers that follow my work, you are pure inspiration!
Have a fantastic day and stay tuned as we always have something beautiful and fun coming up!
Oh, and if you want to check all my online courses, click here.
And to see our DIY kits check our online shop here.
Happy gluing
Much love,
Claudia