I found these really cool boxes at Michael’s, they are wooden with a wire mesh opening on the top and they close with a metal latch and hinges. I thought I could turn them on their sides and make some cool “shrines” with them.

This first one is an Asian design, which is where the shrine inspiration comes from. I painted the front “door” and insides with different colors of acrylic paint. Then tore pages out of an old Chinese poetry book and also tore washi and origami papers and layered them all over the sides and back of the box adhering them with matte Modge Podge (you could also use Gel Medium). I then collage the image of a Geisha, added wings, a flower and text to her and adhered it to the inside back of the box. I also added some Asian game pieces.

Here’s the shrine open from the front:

Here it is closed:

And a couple of shots of the sides and back:

Here’s another shrine I did with the theme “Secret Garden”, inspired of course by the book. This box was also painted and covered in torn pieces of mulberry paper and pages from an old book. I collaged the image of a woman and added wings to her (yeah, I do that alot:)) and some text and also added a small compass inside the box. The door of the box has a neat bumble bee charm on the outside of it. On the bottom of this shrine I wanted some “feet” for it to stand on so I attached some old round wooden game pieces to the bottom of each corner of the box.

 Here’s the front open:

Here’s a view of the front closed:

And one so you can see the side: