My Valentine's Day Tea Box Creation - Revealed!

Catherine Felegi is the founder and author of the blog Tea Love, a blog dedicated to all things tea-related. You can find this post and others on her page,http://cafelegi.wordpress.com/.

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So, as many of you have seen on Tea Love's Facebook page, I have been talking about how I used an old tea container for my boyfriend's Valentine's Day gift.

A while back, my sister-in-law gave me some chocolate mint tea in this charming wooden box.   She wasn't a big fan of it, but she thought that I might like the tea.

The tea was rather tasty, but I must admit, my main attraction was to the box.

The top slides back and forth on the top, keeping the tea inside fresh.   While the box is not made of a high-quality wood, nor is it very durable, it is not exactly meant to last forever.   However, for some reason, I just could not bring myself to throw away this cute box.   Something stopped me.   It had way too much potential and, as an avid crafter (after all, I have made earrings and necklaces out of used tea bags!), I knew I would find some use for it.   Thus, I stored it away for safe keeping.

Then I met my boyfriend, Camilo.   Also an avid artist and a tea lover, he thrives on the creative.   You can often find him at my Tea Love talks, helping me unpack, repack, serve tea, and just chatting away with anyone with a listening ear.

Well, I got into the television series Dr. Who, a BBC show with a time-and-relative-dimension-in-space-traveling alien., not too long after he and I met.   We were both quickly hooked on the show, often binging on numerous episodes a night just to see what adventure our Doctor would be going on and see how he would save the universe from imminent destruction.   We constantly talk about the show, read about it (especially my friend's Dr. Who and Theology blog, Whovian Theology), and generally just act like five-year-old children when anything Dr. Who-related comes up.

Then, for Valentine's Day, I got an idea - why not make Camilo a TARDIS (the ship that the Doctor uses to travel)?

So, after a bit of clay molding, painting, gluing, nailing, and frustration, I finally produced a TARDIS worthy of the Doctor.

Since the box was starting to part, I decided to nail the side together to keep it secure.   Then I white-washed it so that I had a clean surface (as much as I love tea, I did not want the tea branding to show up underneath the paint).   Using some clay, I constructed the top of the TARDIS, which was also the hardest (the lantern kept breaking off, so that was slightly annoying).   I sanded the box down for a more secure fit, did some painting (including glow-in-the-dark paint so that the TARDIS would "light up" at night), and filled it up with some candy.   Voila!    A TARDIS made from an old tea container!

Have anything you have made from old tea products?   I have heard some people who have used their containers for candles and others who have "flower tea pots".

Share your creations here in the comments or go to Tea Love's Facebook page to share a picture!