Stained Wooden Stationary Boxes

For Christmas this year I wanted to do something a bit different for my son & nephews. I hated the idea of loading them up with more and more games/video games/etc.

I decided I would make a departure from all things electronic and give the boys personalized stationary in a personalized stationary box.  It was super easy and I think they came out great.  I wish I had taken pictures throughout the process, but I didn't think that far ahead - go figure!  =D

I filled their boxes with personalized stationary I got for free through Vistaprint (just pay shipping)

In each box I included:

• Return address labels

• Letterhead
  

• Notepads

• Pens

• Sticky Note Pads (think post-its)

• Postcards (I used the standard size as Thank You's and ordered the envelopes to go with them) 

•  I bought a regular box of envelopes and split it between them

I picked up these letterboxes (or that's what I call them) from Michael's.  I stained mine, but you could do any number of things (paint, decoupage, etc.).

The first thing I did was lightly sand all the surfaces.  Once it was all sanded I wiped it down with a slightly damp cloth to remove all the dust.

Then I grabbed my paint brush and stain and put on 3 coats of stain, waiting for each coat to dry before applying the next coat. I stopped at 3 coats because I was happy with the color.

While I was at Michael's I picked up these wooden letters

I painted the letters slightly darker than the color of the stain and Gorilla super-glued (I love that stuff!) them to the lids.  After the glue dried I took some outdoor Modge Podge and lightly went over the letters to help seal the paint and give them a bit of a sheen.

Then I opened Word and printed out the word Stationary on card-stock and trimmed it to fit.

In the end, this is how they came out...

I'm linking too