Chocolate Box with Cactus Design Repurposed Into a Jewelry Holder

After savoring the luscious Ethel M chocolates in this fancy cactus box, I couldn't resist saving the box for repurposing.  The box stayed on a shelf for months before I decided it would make the perfect gift box/jewelry holder for a sweet person who is fond of cactus designs.  The box had metallic outlined cactus images and a satin ribbon (with a small gold medal) that was not removable.  Also the box had a printed Ethel M label and a few stickers when removed took off some of the box covering.  All of this limited my design possibilities but made me search my printed card stock and rubber stamp stashes to find cactus themed items.  

I happily discovered some Doodlebug Design paper and Whimsy rubber stamp and die sets.  The Whimsey cactus designs were stamped, heat embossed with copper embossing powder and colored in with Copic pens before fussy cutting.  I think the alcohol in the Copic pens may have taken off some of the foil-like shine of the images when I colored them in. I really wanted to match the foil lined images already on the box. Oh well, maybe next time I'll use my Misti stamp aligner, stamp the cacti, color them in, restamp them and heat emboss with copper powder.

The bottom of the box also had some unremovable stickers so I covered it with more printed card stock (the reverse of the colorful cacti images).

Here is the inside of the box. I washed the plastic liner so it could be used for holding jewelry.  I plan on giving a few pieces of specially chosen jewelry and using cactus print washi tape to hold them in place until the birthday girl opens the box. The 'Happy Birthday To You' tag was purchased in bulk for a discount price and seemed perfect for this gift box. I tied it on with a thin piece of Heiko woven ribbon.  I think this decorated box should please the cactus lover recipient and I'm glad that I bought the candy, (ate it) and repurposed the pretty box. Recycling makes me feel so much better than filling trash bins. Please recycle when you can!  Thank you.