Trying to be Crafty: Canvas Covered Diaper Box

I'm going to say it right now: I am not artistically inclined in any way.  I have a wide skill set, but those skills do NOT include anything involving knitting, sewing, or crafts. Most of the hand-crafted items I have made in the past are serviceable and competant,  but not artful in any way.  So when I am sharing a craft with you, my dear, patient, forgiving (right??) blog readers, know that this is in no way a tutorial. It's just a real-life view into my humble attempts to create. 


Now that my giant disclaimer is out of the way, I can share what I did yesterday while my children -- gasp -- played quietly and nicely together. 


In February, I saw this gorgeous post by Positively Splendid, where she shows you how to make these beautiful storage baskets out of diaper boxes! Here is what she did:

Photo by Positively Splendid

Amazing, right?  So I thought, I have some diaper boxes lying around, I could totally do this.  I asked my mom for some scrap canvas fabric, found an old diaper box, and picked out a cute patterned fabric for the liner.

And then I put everything in a bag where it sat in a corner of my bedroom for six months.

I may have a little problem with procrastination.

Better late than never, right? I finally dragged the giant bag of materials downstairs this week and got to work.  This is what I was starting with:

Just a diaper box with the flaps cut off and a swath of bright red canvas fabric. Since I was using a remnant that was about 1 1/2 feet wide and 6 feet long, I couldn't use any of the instructions in the tutorial from Positively Splendid, so I just kind of did my own thing. Thank goodness for spray adhesive!

Here are some action shots:

Center the box on the fabric, spray the adhesive on the side of the box, and pull tightly to get the kinks out.

 Trying to do the other side. Whoops:

 See that giant gap between the edge of the box and the fabric? That's what happens when you arbitrarily fold over the fabric (to make a clean edge) and don't pay attention to what you're doing. I had to undo the folded edge and sort of fudge it to get it to match up on both sides.  It's a good thing spray adhesive takes 30 minutes to set.

Finally, the box is wrapped. Now onto the "lining:"

I just folded over the unfinished edges and secured them to the box with spray glue. I probably should have used regular craft glue on the edges to make them a little cleaner, but I'm lazy so I didn't.

One more whoops. I ran out of fabric with about 4 inches to go!  I can't even say I mismeasured because I didn't measure my second fabric at all.  More compliments to spray glue -- I can't believe I never used the stuff before. Make sure though, that you're using it in a well-ventilated area. I had all the windows open and a fan going. That stuff is pretty toxic-smelling.

I found another scrap and matched it up as best I could. The lining, and in fact, all the fabric, was attached using spray adhesive. No pins, no sewing, no needles. 

Voila! My first (only?) craft of 2011 is finished.  I know that my 3 year old could probably have done a neater job, but I needed a storage bin for paperwork and other miscellanea, and this looks better than, well, a diaper box.  I do love storage bins, so I'm planning on making another one for Mason's school artwork and papers.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback!