I have this friend who keeps leaving empty cigar boxes in my balcony. (Or maybe I should use the past tense as he says to have cut down on the smoking...) Anyway, at first I kept tossing them out with the trash, but then I got to thinking there could be some use for the boxes if I only I could remove the paint.

I first tried my sanding grip (by Tim Holtz) on them, it kind of worked but was slow, painful and used a lot of sandpaper. Then I bought some paint and varnish remover from a local supermarket, painfully slow as well, and didn't work as efficiently as I had hoped. Then Janne came up with an idea because he was exploring paint removal options for his radio contolled cars at the same time. Mixing water and drain cleaner and letting the boxes dwell there for a few days... The paint came off nicely and this is a cheap trick compared to the paint remover :)

I thought you could use the boxes for storing Artist Trading Cards (or trading cards of any sort for that matter). The box is just the right size. Obviously it won't hold too many cards though. You could also store stamps and other small things in these.

The idea on how to decorate these actually came to me watching Tim Holtz demos. Here's a link to the video, which inspired me. I ordered the alcohol inks, blending solution and Stazon ink from Sinelli. And here are a few of the first ones I made:

The problem now is that if my friend actually manages to cut down on the smoking, I'll run out of supplies... But I like him better alive, so good for him! :D