What to do with an old box.

    A few years ago I made a little box to put Anna's blocks in.  I just used some scrap material we had on hand, and screwed it together.  Since then, the box has been abundantly scribbled on, had old pealing stickers stuck on it, and etc.  It was looking pretty bad, but I didn't really care since it's just a box to hold blocks in.  But last Christmas my Father made Samuel a beautiful set of blocks, and my Mother made a big bag to hold all of them, so I put all of the blocks in the much more attractive bag.  But what to do with the box?  I decided it was the right shape to hold our kids movies in, to help keep them accessible but organized.  So this scrappy little box has been sitting on my TV cabinet since.  When you're used to looking at something, it's easy to not see it's faults, but the other day I looked up there and thought, you know, I bet I could sand those scribbles off and make it look a lot better. So I did, and then I thought I'd paint something on it, and so I did.  The result is this.

     If you're thinking that the painting looks familiar, that's because I copied Gyo Fujikawa's illustration from A Child's Book Of Poems.  There is something about that crocodile that appeals to me.  I think a lot of it is the colors.  I had to alter the picture a little to make it fit on the box, but I like the end result.  It was fun just copying someone else's art; I haven't done that in years.  I used watered down acrylic paint to try to copy the pastel look of the original.  Considering I was working with completely different materials, I think I copied it pretty closely.  What do you think?  This was my Homeschool Holiday project.