Altered_stArt Cigar Box - Beginning

First of all, I want to start with an update on the creative side of things. I have not been here to post in a month, yikes. I have been doing lots of things, and been busy. I got my charms back from the swap. Love them all. I now have a charm bracelet to make for them. I will post that some day when I have accomplished it.

This is the beginning of an altered cigar box project for a swap the same Yahoo group as the charms were. I thought I would photo-journal the progress of alteration, so, here goes:
Enter the cigar box. I had to laugh because I thought it was just cardboard, and then I looked at the bottom and it is wood. Well covered wood.
Now the goodies. One of the particulars of the swap was to send a quart sized baggie of things that you would like to see on your cigar box. Then we are to add to that collection from our own supplies, and alter the box. Once it is finished we ship the box back to our swap partners. I have been waiting for the day to start, eagerly, but almost too eagerly. Above is a picture of some of the assortment of goodies I received. I laid them all out on the table, and selected various paint colors to match what I was given.While cooking supper, Logan decided he was going to help me get started. I didn't ask for help, by the way, and the results were a bunch of smeared burgundy paint. Luckily, only one tiny drop ended up in the carpet. The paint did, however, end up on my chair, table, cutting mat, and Layla. Spaghetti waited on an impromptu bath time. Even though Logan looks kind of glum like he was in trouble, the husband and I just laughed about it and cleaned up the kids.This is the lid, and come to find out it was just attatched with strips of masking tape. I will be adding hinges to it at a later point. Loving the Halloween placemat, huh? This is one of my "go green" tricks in my work area. I got this on clearance last year to protect my desk from paint. So instead of wasting paper to keep the area clean, I can just get the mat messy. Best of all, I don't have to clean up the mat, just let it dry and go. Below is the lid after I applied the paint to it. Both the front and back have the same marbled design, just a little different from each other, but the same color schemes.