Mermaids like display bins too!

I am not only artsy, I'm crafty too! :) I do a fair amount of art/craft shows these days and I'm always looking for new ways to display my items. I also work at a pet store and when I saw this little dandy about to be tossed to recycling I snagged it up and decided to alter it. Please note, I am, in no way, promoting Purina!!! It just happened to be the company on the display bin I saw potential in! :) So please disregard (on a side note, if you need some advice on pet foods, i'd be happy to share my opinions and knowledge with you! lol!)

So this is what the box USED to look like!

Step 1: When you're displaying colourful mermaid art and things you want a pretty and colourful display bin! So you firtst pick your colours. This is no surprise that I chose a variety of blues, purples, and greesn and of course made it sparkly!!! So, First I cut the purple sparkly paper and laid it on the backboard. And next, following the original layout of the box, I wanted a place to display some information as to what might be in the bin. So I chose a sparkly aqua polka dot paper and cut it to size.

Step 2: When you look INTO the box you also want it to be interesting. So I cut strips of the same aqua polka dot paper but found a beautiful GREEN polka dot paper to go with it. Now, when I was in elementary there was some kind of rhyme or other about blue and green only being seen in a washing machine....RUBBISH I say! :) And here's proof! They're lovely together!
Step 3: The sides. These were interesting pieces to cute! They're very awkwardly shaped but I did it! I felt the flaps on the inside didn't need anything really fancy so I picked out a lighter mauve colour. It's embossed with flowers but no sparkles. And I picked out the same aqua colour paper as before but with sparkly swirls to tie in to the top flap.
Step 4: I needed more stripes! I thought it would be neat and visually appealing to repeat the stripe design on the front of the box. I really love how this turned out!
Step 5: Adding my own personal logos! I mounted each of these different banners/logos on a piece of royal blue sparkly sticky-back foam to give them a bit of depth and pop! These look fabulous in person!
Step 6: Gluing the beads! These beads, if you can believe it WERE silver. They're silver Christmas tree garland beads. I didn't want silver - I didn't think they would add anything to the box. So I painted them with blue metallic acrylic paint! How, you ask?!? Well, I grabbed a sandwhich bag, poured a bit of the blue paint in, tossed in the beads, sealed, and smooshed it around until all the beads were covered! Then I took them out, hung them over the shower rod (protected by paper towel) and let them dry. And then I glued each individual bead to the box with hot glue! yeah...a bit time consuming but i'm meticulous!

And this is the finished product!!!!!! I LOVE it! I think it's just fabulous. I haven't decided 100% what i'm going to display IN the box and at this point I don't care! lol! I just think it's so pretty! I'm very excited to use it! Hope you like what I've done! :) Recycling is COOL!