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You are here: Home / Crafts / An Easy And Cute Shoebox Craft For The Home

An Easy And Cute Shoebox Craft For The Home

28th February 2018 by Claire Armstrong 58 Comments

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Shoebox craft

I never seem to have enough craft storage. Especially, boxes in which to hide the little things. Instead of buying something I decided to reuse what I already had at home with this shoebox craft.

One of the best things about this shoebox craft is that I could sit and do all the doodling whilst catching up with the winter Olympics.

This craft cost me virtually nothing, as I had everything already. It was a very quick and simple upcycle and featured under B for boxes in the list of A to Z of upcycling ideas.

Create Vintage Suitcases With Shoebox Craft

The boxes look really cute on my shelves and I think I will be making some more. I might even add some labels to the boxes disguised as luggage tags.

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What you need

  • Cardboard shoeboxes – I used boxes in various sizes.
  • White Chalk paint
  • Black sharpie
  • Pencil
Cardboard shoe boxes

How to make Shoeboxes look like vintage Suitcases

First, paint the shoe boxes white with chalk paint. You can use other white paint, but I personally prefer the matt finish you get with chalk paint. I just used a wall paintbrush for this.

If the shoeboxes are brightly coloured, more than one coat of paint may be needed.

white painted shoe boxes

2. Next, once the paint has dried on the shoeboxes then you can draw on the suitcase furniture. Before doodling onto the shoe boxes, sketch out some designs of handles, hinges and locks, and corners. This will give you a reference guide to refer to when doodling.

You can copy the doodles I used below.

vintage suitcase doodles.

3. Next, draw the vintage suitcase doodles onto the white shoe boxes first in pencil. Make sure you add a handle, locks, corners and trims to each shoe box.

Then when you are happy with the design go over the pencil marks with a black sharpie.

Pencil drawing on white shoe box
Black sharpie doodle on shoe box

4. With this shoebox craft, I doodled on the front, back, sides and top.

Top tip: Don’t worry if you make a mistake with the sharpie. You can always paint over it with more white chalk paint and start again.

sharpie shoe box craft doodle
shoe boxes painted like vintage suitcases

Other shoebox craft ideas

I’m really pleased with how these shoeboxes turned out and can’t wait to make some more.

With five of us in the family that do a lot of sport, we get through a lot of shoes. I need to find some more shoebox crafts! I think I will cover some of them in maps as I did with my empty cookie tins. Instead of drawing on the handles, I could actually make real ones out of leather scraps.

The simple monochrome look of these suitcases inspired me with some fun Christmas decorations. I made some simple white felted baubles with black stitching, and a black and white Scandi felt forest.

Vintage suitcase shoe box craft
Shoe box craft suitcase doodle

The vintage suitcase shoe boxes also blend in well with the wallpaper in my dining room. It’s a bit like camouflage.

camouflage suitcase choe boxes

If you are looking for more craft storage ideas you might want to check out these DIY storage boxes with denim and stylish copper and denim craft caddy.  Also, my festive painted wicker hamper.

For other uses of cardboard boxes, check out these giant cardboard Christmas decorations.

Vintage Map Suitcase

Or even my popular vintage map suitcase.

For other DIY craft storage ideas check out favcrafts.com

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY Upcycling Tagged With: box, craft storage, doodle, sharpie craft, sharpies, shoe box, shoe box craft, shoe boxes, shoebox, shoeboxes, storage, vintage suitcase, vintage suitcase doodle, vintage suitcase illustration

Previous Post: « 19 of The Best Rainbow Home Decor Ideas
Next Post: Unique Easter Egg Decorating With Marimekko »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stephanie Keime

    3rd December 2019 at 9:29 am

    Soooo cute. Did you doodle your dining room wallpaper too? I’d love to see more of that.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      3rd December 2019 at 8:00 pm

      Thank you, no the wallpaper I bought like that. I think its from a brand called Graham and Brown.

      Reply
  2. Linda at Mixed Kreations

    18th August 2019 at 2:39 pm

    What a fun way to make some super cute storage boxes!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      18th August 2019 at 9:31 pm

      Thank you, they were fun to make.

      Reply
  3. Olga

    29th March 2018 at 2:39 am

    Love the idea!!
    Can’t sleep anymore-thinking about all those boxes I put in recycle bin over the years!! :))

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      29th March 2018 at 10:43 am

      Thank you! You’ll just have to go out and buy new shoes.

      Reply
  4. Rosie (@greenrosielife)

    28th March 2018 at 4:28 pm

    Ha ha I love these! I actually have 3 proper old suitcases and I was thinking only recently how sad it is that no-one uses them now and it is all wheelie cases. Somehow they were so much more classy IMHO. #GoingGreen

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      28th March 2018 at 7:11 pm

      Thank you. I love how old suitcases look but I much prefer to drag one on wheels then carry a heavy case.

      Reply
  5. Teresa

    12th March 2018 at 11:13 pm

    I would never have come up with this idea and they are so cute! Thank you for sharing on Party in Your PJ’s. Pinned!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      13th March 2018 at 6:56 am

      Thank you, Teresa.

      Reply
  6. Sam - Raggedy Bits

    12th March 2018 at 2:04 am

    What a neat repurpose of plain old boring shoe boxes!!! Perfect to store crafty goodies!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      12th March 2018 at 7:03 am

      Thank you, Sam. yes mine are now full of my craft rubbish.

      Reply
  7. Mary

    9th March 2018 at 1:32 pm

    Claire you must have read my mind. I have a ton of show boxes I need to make over and this is the perfect way!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      9th March 2018 at 1:38 pm

      Thank you, Mary. They are fun to make, you can even eleborate them more by drawing luggage labels.

      Reply
  8. Sandra L Garth

    9th March 2018 at 12:23 am

    My granddaughter needs lots of these to corral all of her hair and makeup supplies. Thank you for sharing with us this week at Celebrate Your Story and we hope you will join us again next week.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      9th March 2018 at 7:50 am

      Thank you, I think your granddaughter will have fun making them.

      Reply
  9. Tubbs

    7th March 2018 at 8:48 pm

    These look lovely. Like the sort of thing that Paddington would buy from Mr Gruber’s shop 🙂

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      7th March 2018 at 8:57 pm

      Thank you, yes very Paddington like.

      Reply
  10. Susan

    6th March 2018 at 6:11 pm

    These are so, so cute! I use shoe boxes to store my craft supplies but they look like, uh, shoe boxes. Yours look like something you’d buy in an etsy shop. And I love the part where if you goof you can just paint it over and fix it. I’m inspired to try!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      6th March 2018 at 10:05 pm

      Ahh, thank you, Susan. I often goof when crafting so often need a quick fix.

      Reply
  11. IOANNA

    6th March 2018 at 2:49 am

    This is perfect,I love it!!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      6th March 2018 at 7:33 am

      Ahh, thank you ?

      Reply
  12. Kara

    5th March 2018 at 10:44 am

    Wow, these are seriously effective and really quite simple.

    Thanks for sharing x
    #homeetc

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      5th March 2018 at 12:26 pm

      Thank you, Kara.

      Reply
  13. Julie

    4th March 2018 at 11:38 pm

    These are so cool, they really remind me of Paddington bear , back in the day when it was the TV program (I loved Paddington) It had drawn backgrounds didn’t it? No shoe box is safe now, this seems much easier than covering them with fabric or paper and much cooler.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      5th March 2018 at 7:27 am

      Yes it’s like Paddington cartoon of the 70’s and 80’s. Thank you. I would say it was easier than covering them with fabric or paper and definitely more fun too.

      Reply
  14. Kathryn Griffin

    4th March 2018 at 7:02 pm

    Oh, my goodness! These are so cute! I would have never thought to transform shoe boxes this way! Thanks for sharing! Feel free to share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party which goes live tomorrow at 8:00am. http://www.thededicatedhouse.com Hope to see you at the shindig! Have a great week ahead! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      5th March 2018 at 7:25 am

      Ahh thank you so much and thanks for the invite.

      Reply
  15. Cherryl Ehlenburg

    3rd March 2018 at 11:46 pm

    This is such a cute and unique idea! I guess I will have to start saving shoe boxes!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      4th March 2018 at 6:41 am

      Thank you. Personally I think it’s a good idea to treat yourself to a new pair of boots.

      Reply
  16. creativejewishmom/sara

    3rd March 2018 at 7:00 pm

    Brilliant Claire, and oh so stylish……i can certainly use a whole luggage room full of these! And truthfully they would look great in any color, especially pastels…..so one can really use any latex house paint that happens to be on hand, hmmm, hope to have some and give it a try. Thanks for sharing on craft schooling Sunday!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      3rd March 2018 at 8:19 pm

      Thank you, Sara. I’m sure any latex or chalk paint would work well.

      Reply
  17. Katrin

    3rd March 2018 at 8:44 am

    How do you come up with these fantastic, unique and creative ideas Claire! Love these boxes!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      3rd March 2018 at 5:38 pm

      Ahh, thank you Katrin. I just love mKing stuff.

      Reply
  18. Yolanda

    3rd March 2018 at 7:57 am

    Super cute and a brilliant idea!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      3rd March 2018 at 5:39 pm

      Thank you so much, Yolanda.

      Reply
  19. Hollie

    2nd March 2018 at 4:21 pm

    That’s quite cute! I’m seriously thinking about doing this for my kids small toys!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      2nd March 2018 at 7:32 pm

      Thank you, I think these would look great in a kids room.

      Reply
  20. Michelle Leslie

    2nd March 2018 at 9:39 am

    Ah Claire, you’ve done it again. Such a brilliant idea. It looks like storage that jumped straight out of a comic book and decided to come live forever in the real world. I love how they turned out. An emoty cardboard box will never look the same again.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      2nd March 2018 at 11:27 am

      Thank you, Michelle. If you ever watched Paddington Bear the cartoon from the 1970’s it looks a bit like the title sequence which was hand drawn.

      Reply
  21. Janine

    2nd March 2018 at 5:41 am

    Claire,
    What a cute idea! Love how you upcycled a shoe box into something that works so nice as decor! You’re so clever.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      2nd March 2018 at 11:26 am

      Thank you, Janine. I do like how they turned out.

      Reply
  22. Cecilia

    1st March 2018 at 7:05 pm

    You are so resourceful and these are so cute! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm–pinned!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      1st March 2018 at 7:29 pm

      Thank you, Cecilia. I like to repurpose whenever possible.

      Reply
  23. Mary-The Boondocks Blog

    1st March 2018 at 2:47 pm

    Claire this is so cute, I’m gonna see if I can get my girls on board and make it for their bookshelves.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      1st March 2018 at 7:25 pm

      Thank you, Mary. I know I always say this but these are actually fun to make. It would be fun to add some travel labels to them too.

      Reply
  24. Julia - Vintage with Laces

    1st March 2018 at 9:44 am

    That’s so cute and adorable, Claire!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      1st March 2018 at 11:29 am

      Thank you, Julia.

      Reply
  25. Becky at PinksCharmimg

    28th February 2018 at 9:46 pm

    These are amazing! They remind me of Paddington (the 80s TV show not the film) for some reason I can’t put my finger on. Love them x #HomeEtc

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      1st March 2018 at 11:33 am

      Now that you mention it I see the Paddington thing too. I think it was the title sequence that was a hand-drawn black and white background. Maybe that’s where I got the idea from lodged in the back of my brain from childhood. Thank you!

      Reply
  26. Debrashoppeno5

    28th February 2018 at 5:51 pm

    The suitcases are so adorable. I wish I had shelf space to try this project.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      28th February 2018 at 8:50 pm

      Thank you ?

      Reply
  27. Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled

    28th February 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Excellent, as always Claire! I save shoe boxes for the kids random, last-minute school projects but this makes me want to use them myself, LOL. Visiting from Whisk It Wednesday.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      28th February 2018 at 2:54 pm

      Thank you, Victoria. They were really fun to make, I loved doodling.

      Reply

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