Ellie's Treasure Box

Thanks to my mom and Caillou, Ellie is obsessed with collecting treasures.  Note: Treasures typically include rocks (big surprise...that's a genetic mandate), leaves, pine cones, pine needles, sticks, mulch and garbage.  Yes, garbage.  We do our best to sift through these things and retain only those that can be cleaned or came from a familiar source.  Still, we don't exactly want these things on the kitchen counter or the floor, which is where they inevitably end up.  I've thought of creating a display box, but I don't think Ellie's quite up to leaving her things on display.

I decided she needed a treasure box.  I was envisioning some sort of lunch box, and JoAnn had a few cute ones that just needed some stickers.  I wanted to let Ellie pick, though, and she chose a wooden treasure chest.  I didn't even tell her that's what it was called.  She grabbed it and held it tight.  So...the next step was paint.  Ellie chose Indian Turquoise, which matches her room perfectly.  This kid has an eye for color; this isn't the first time she's chosen a color in the palette of her room.  We set out to find a wood piece to attach, but they were all too large.  I was going to put her name on it, but they were out of "L."  I decided to check out the buttons.  Ellie picked some rhinestones, again in the colors of her room.  I also found some felt butterfly stickers that matched, so I grabbed them.

Ellie helped me paint, peeled the butterfly stickers and applied glue to the rhinestones.  She also insisted we put some rhinestones on the back.  Admittedly, I did not paint the bottom, mostly because I didn't want turquoise paint chipping off everywhere.  I'm happy with the results, and Ellie is thrilled.