Showing posts with label decoupage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decoupage. Show all posts

Sunday, June 10, 2012

From Tossed Shelf to Top Shelf


In literal terms, this what-not shelf wasn't actually tossed. But it was sentenced to a garage sale table  featuring nothing but 50-cent items. I snapped it up for a rainy-day project.


When I got the shelf home, I remembered this pitifully beat-up--or should I say scribbled up--1952 early reader, Fun with John and Jean, that I had picked up some time back for a quarter. It's easy to see why it was nearly a freebie. But, many of the pages remained in good shape and I thought I could combine the shelf and some images from the book to create a nice display shelf for a kid's room.


I'd been looking forward to cracking open my first quart of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue so chose it to give the shelf a facelift. I had intended to fully distress and dark wax the shelf. But, I so liked the look of the paint on its own, I decided to stop at that.


I've always loved the illustrations in these early readers and this book was no exception. After eliminating the scribbled pages, I was left with some very nice images to decoupage onto the inside back of the piece.


To add a playful touch, embellished the front panel with reclaimed Scrabble tiles.


Hang it on the wall, or stand it on top of a dresser or table. Either way, I think it looks pretty cute.


Make it a great day!
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Saturday, March 17, 2012

A Gift Box 40 Years Later


Some time back, I bought an ugly-duckling of a box at a thrift store for 98 cents. It was wooden with a hinged lid that looked like it was intended for something like holding stationery and pens. 




Looks like someone had lovingly hand-painted the lid, signed it on the inside, created a nice velvet lining and given it as a gift back in 1972. I began sanding the paint off the lid before I remembered to take photos, so the Chinese letters that had been painted in super thick gold paint are almost gone at the time of this photo session.

Even though I chose to redo this box with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I had to give the lid a pretty deep sanding.  The decorative paint that had been applied back in the '70s, was so thick it had substantial ridges that would have shown through any new paint job.


After I applied a nice coat of ASCP Paris Grey, I used Rosemary's splendid blender pen transfer method to create the wonderful image from The Graphics Fairy. Then I distressed the entire piece. I followed that with a coat of Annie Sloan soft wax and then a light brushing of the dark wax for a more aged look.

In reality, though, it wasn't as simple as all that. When I tried the blender pen transfer the first time, rather than transfer the image, the blender pen simply stripped the paint off the lid. Not to be deterred, however, I painted just the image area with another coat of Paris Grey, let it dry, and added a second coat to that small area. And, believing that the third time was bound to be the charm, I added a third coat for good measure. It worked!



I replaced the red velvet lining with a nice selection of handwritten papers, a couple of which also are from Karen's wonderful collection at The Graphics Fairy. After positioning and repositioning the pieces a few times and finding the arrangement I liked, I attached each with a thin coat of Mod Podge and then gave the entire inside a generous coat of matte finish Mod Podge to seal it.

The hinges were in good shape, but tarnished. Even so, I wanted a more aged look, so added some black acrylic paint with a soft cloth, removed the excess paint and sealed it with a clear spray-on sealer.



As I sit here at my laptop and review the photos of this lovely reclaimed stationery box, I suddenly have an urge to handwrite someone a personal note.

Make it a great day!
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