A Craft Foam Tiled Box Tutorial

Hey everyone! I've got a super fun project for you today. It's a craft foam tiled box... and you use puffy paint to grout it!!

I have a whole drawer full of that craft foam you can buy at the dollar store. I bought it years ago when I was just starting to really get into mixed media but never really used it....till now. 

I thought if cut up, the foam would make a good tile. And as for the puffy paint, I was surfing the web and saw that someone had said that puffy paint makes for a good texture paste. That's when the idea hit to use it as my grout for this project.

I also have decided to use it for a couple of challenge sites:

🔹stamps and stencils

🔹more mixed media

🔹Simon Says Stamping - Wednesday's 

Gather your supplies:

🔹a box to alter

🔹gesso

🔹craft foam

🔹alcohol inks and blending solution

🔹puffy paint

🔹3D lacquer or squeezable resin

🔹glaze medium

I'm always looking out for things to alter these days and so I got my box to alter at the dollar store also. 

Here are the steps (I'll post the picture first):

Step 1: Cover your box with a layer of gesso.

(Since mine had a design, I especially needed to, but it's usually always a good idea to start a project with gesso)

Step 2: Add alcohol ink to your craft foam.

(Using a piece of felt, I added alcohol ink by "pouncing" it on)

Step 3: Add more than one color of ink.

(Since I was making mine blue, I used both blue shades of alcohol ink I had.)

Step 4: Use a blending solution as your last step to inking to blend the colors together.

(It didn't really look cool till I blended the colors.)

Step 5: Draw a line where the lid of your box comes to on the bottom portion of the box.

(I'm really glad I remembered this step, otherwise the lid wouldn't have fit.)

Step 6: Cut out the tiles from the inked craft foam.

( I made mine kind of jagged, but you can make them any shape.)

Step 7: Paint the areas that you're not going to tile.

(I painted mine the same color as my grout.)

Step 8: Glue your tiles where you want them placed.

(I actually cut some to fit.)

Step 9: Fill in the spaces with puffy paint.

(This parts fun.)

Step 10: Add the 3D lacquer or squeezable resin.

(I ended up adding it over the whole thing, but if you're careful you could also just add it to the foam tiles.)

Step 11: Add a glazing medium to the non tiled areas.

(I did this so the non tiled areas would shine like the rest of the box.)

Step 12: Add any final touches and/or embellishments.

(I covered up more of the original design as well as add some pearls along the rim of the lid.)

And we're all done!!

I'd love it if you left a comment telling me what you think of the project. Let me know if any of you decide to do it too.