Creating altered art is fun, and if you can create art that is useful and practical, that is even better. This altered purse project takes an old discarded metal lunch box, and turns it into a new and cool fashionable purse. Wear this neat purse around town to impress your friends. You will be surely be the only one around that has one.
What You Will Need To Create Your Purse
small metal lunch box
two to three feet of chain
needle nose pliers acrylic paints
felt or other cloth
glue
cool decorations of your choice
Creating Your Lunch Box Purse
To create your altered lunch box purse, you will need a metal lunch box. Try to find a smaller sized one if you can, because you won’t want a huge bulky metal purse hanging under your arm. Look in your attic, or maybe your mom’s attic is a more likely place to find an old metal lunch box. It isn’t as fun to go out and buy a new box. That would be defeating your purpose. And it would be cheating. Half the fun is finding the perfect lunch box to use. Look through thrift stores and garage sales. As a last resort, buy a used one on ebay.
When you’ve located a nice small square or rectangular lunch box you want to use for this project, you should clean it, and look for any rust spots. If you find any rust, sand it out with some fine sandpaper before you begin the project. Make sure the lunch box is dry before you start.
Remove the handle on the box. There should be little metal loops or triangles that connected the handle to the box. You will use these to attach the chain to use as the purse strap. Use the pliers to separate the end rings on the chain. Hook them to the purse, and secure with the pliers. You can use a long chain for a shoulder strap, or a short chain if you want a hand-held purse.
Line the inside of the box with cloth. You can use your choice of cloth. You can go with a soft and fuzzy felt, or a rough, textured type of fabric. Color, texture, weave, that is all up to personal choice. Glue it on securely. The cloth will be a decorative touch, but it also has a practical purpose. With your lunch box purse being metal, if you were to carry around anything at all inside, say, metal coins, you can be sure they would bang around in there, causing an atrociously embarrassing racket. The cloth will be useful in muffling the sound. In fact, you can even add a layer of padding under the cloth lining.
There are many ways to decorate the outside of your altered lunch box purse. If you have lucked out and were able to find a cool lunch box, like Hello Kitty or Rainbow Brite, you can incorporate the picture on the box into your design. If you were stuck with something lame like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you can paint over the entire thing. Add embellishments as you desire for a final touch to your new lunch box purse.
