Altered recipe box

Have you ever struggled to find the right words to use in an art project or in a card. I've seen and read many quotes and sayings that I like, but when it comes time to apply one to a project I have forgotten them. So I thought why not write them down when I see or hear them and store them somehow....
I found some recipe boxes in the $1 section of Michael's craft store, and packages of 4 x 6 recipe cards also. I'm going to use the recipe cards to write down the quotes and sayings, organize them by subject matter, and store them in a recipe box.
The first thing I did was paint the recipe box with white gesso. I bought 2 boxes; one for myself and one to give away. I thought it best to concentrate on one of them in case this is a trickier project than I had imagined.

Here is the recipe box after I finished applying the acrylic paints. I finally used my Adirondack acrylic paint dabbers!!! I had tried using them before, but could not get them to work correctly. Then, last week on one of Tim Holtz's U-Tube demo's he mentioned what to do if the dabbers won't work. I had tried everything he had suggested except for one thing.... spray a small amount of water on a paper plate and start dabbing/pumping the head of the dabber into it. That finally got them to work... not great... but at least some paint was coming out of the foam applicator top. I used 3 colors on the box and then used the darkest of them (raspberry) to outline all the edges.

This is a side view of the completed recipe box. I found some beaded trim on sale at Michael's just the other day and thought the color would go perfectly with the paints I used on the box.... And it does!!!

Here's a top view of the recipe box. I used the 'baby face' alphabet die set and my cuttlebug to cut the letters from a raspberry colored cardstock. And the xyron sticker maker works great to apply adhesive on the small pieces.

Since I purchased 2 of the recipe boxes I am going to give this one away. Inside are 2 packages of 4 x 6 recipe cards that the 'new owner' will be able to use to jot down any quotes or sayings that she wants to have on hand when looking for just the right words.