DIY Stenciled Number Box

Around the apartment, I leave little craft trails. Beads on the table, pom poms in the windowsill, a rhinestone chain in the bedroom… The list goes on. I needed a little knickknack box to keep all of my in-progress crafts corralled. When I received some paint and these Handmade Charlotte stencils from Plaid, I considered many things to stencil around the apartment, but I settled on making this number storage box.

The Handmade Charlotte stencils are really neat because they were designed by Charlotte over at the blog Handmade Charlotte and then Plaid made them. She has a few different stencil designs, but I received the “Family Message Center” set.

To start, I took a really sturdy shoe box and reinforced it to stand the test of time. (And me stuffing craft stuff inside.) After reinforcing the sides with tape, I painted over the whole box with the black Folk Art paint.

Then I started the stenciling. I am not a numbers or math person, but when numbers and math take the form of a craft, I’m totally fine with it. 😉 I really like the look of numbers and letters as a pattern, so I decided to cover the box in everyone’s favorite irrational number, Pi. I considered doing the numbers from LOST or repeating a date or something, but I was working on this around March 14th, so I just went with Pi. 🙂

I don’t use stencils very often, but I did find that the sponges are much easier to use than a paintbrush. With a paint brush things get a little messy. :/

The final box in the corner! (Where most of the stray crafts used to roam.) I think stark black and white looks really cool in a room. 🙂

I contemplated painting an actual message center on the fridge, but as a renter, I decided that’s probably not the best idea. (Although putting contact paper down on your fridge and painting on top of that would work!) I also made this little message center on the refrigerator with the Handmade Charlotte stencil and the chalkboard paint.

For more crafty stencils and inspiration, follow Plaid on Facebook, Plaid on Twitter, and Plaid on Pinterest.

 Disclaimer: I wrote this post as part of a sponsored campaign with Plaid and The Blueprint Social. All opinions in this post are my own.