Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope 2011 is off to a great start for you - and of course, quite importantly, a CREATIVE start! I was able, for the first time in many years, to actually stay up for the passing into the new year...and was able to accomplish something crafty at the same time, while my hubby cooked up a huge batch of delicious seafood gumbo - YUM!
Over at
Crafts Unleashed, we've been focusing on crafty organization for the last week (and this coming week, too!)...and while my crafty space is, mostly, pretty well organized, I do still have certain odds and ends that just aren't quite organized to my liking. OR, perhaps they are organized, but I don't happen to care for the actual containers in which they are stored. So a couple of my goals for the first part of this year are to re-fashion some of the uglier storage containers, and to create some new solutions for things that aren't working.
This project was the first "turn ugly into pretty" one for the year. Here's what I had to start with:
This tin, with an acrylic window on top, was originally a storage tin for a Stampin' Up! punch and stamp set, I believe - if I'm not mistaken - from MANY years ago. It has since been used to store various sets of products - everything from tools to stamps to ink pads and stickles. But...it's weird blue color with squiggly white lines on it just weren't working for me. So, rather than scrap it altogether, I decided to alter it.
I started out by using my Espresso colored Adirondack paint dabber around the top edges. Bits of the blue tin showed through after one coat, but I decided to not add a second coat, because I thought the bits of blue showing through added character.
Next, I got out my matte Mod Podge and a foam paint brush. I have several books in my craft room that are for the sole purpose of tear pages out of, so I tore several pages out of one and tore them into smaller pieces in preparation for adding to the tin. I painted a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the tin (starting on the bottom), and gradually added piece after piece of torn paper, adding more Mod Podge as needed to glue edges down. After covering the bottom, I also covered the sides of the tin. I used some Tim Holtz tissue tape to cover the bottom edges of the tin, wrapping it around to cover the gap between the sides and the bottom.
Once the paper and glue had dried, I used my foam ink applicators and distress inks (in Wild Honey, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain) to add color to the papers. After the ink had dried, I added a top coat of Mod Podge, also covering the area of tin which had been painted with the dabber.
Next, I used felt on my ink applicator, with alcohol inks in Mushroom and Latte, with some Blending Solution, to add some color to the window of the container. I added the ink to both the inside and outside of the window, for added effect.
I then used Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 14, and cut 2 pieces of Donna Salazar's Zutter cardboard, and one piece of Tim Holtz cardstock from his Lost & Found collection, all using the largest die in the set. I inked the piece of cardstock with distress ink, then glued it to one of the cardboard pieces, and glued the entire piece to the top of the tin. For the second piece of cardboard, I tore most of one side of the cardboard off, revealing the corrugated center. I inked the ridges with a Clearsnap chalk ink Catseye, and inked the edges with Walnut Stain distress ink, then glued the piece down on the tin. I added a piece of flower trim across the entire tin, gluing it down with Glossy Accents.
To make the denim flower, I used the Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circles (large), and a piece of my son's old cut-off jeans which I had saved. I cut one scalloped circle in every size except the largest and smallest sizes (so the 5 center sizes). (Note: I had to run the sandwich through my Big Kick back and forth several times to get the denim to cut all the way through.) For each circle, I laid down a large dollop of Fabri-tac glue on my non-stick craft mat, laid the cut circle on top of it, then used my fingers to twist the circle and work it until it had pleated and formed into the shape I wanted it. After all five layers were done in this way, I used the Fabri-tac glue to glue all the layers together, added a vintage button (which belonged to my grandfather) on top, and glued the flower to the corner of the tin.
Finally, to finish things off, I used my Dymo labeler (believe it or not, one of the things I bought with my Michael's gift card after Christmas!!) to make the "Found Items" label. I *adore* the look of the old Dymo labels!!!
I plan to keep odds and ends like dice, vintage porcelain dolls, bingo markers, corks, dominoes, etc., in here...cool things that I definitely want to keep for projects, but which I have NO IDEA where else I would keep!! I absolutely LOVE how this turned out, and am SO glad I did not throw out the ugly blue tin!!
I think my NEXT storage solution needs to be something for storing all of my various glimmer/shimmer/smooch mists and sprays. The plastic basket they are currently in is no longer large enough for them, and I'd like something that fits in with my craft studio a little better...so I'm considering trying to make my own container using corrugated board and binding it at the corners with jute. I'll let you know if I do...and if so, how that works out!
So what about YOU? Do you have any ugly storage items in your crafty space that you'd like to attempt a makeover on? If so, I'd love to see your finished project - so make sure to leave a link in the comments!!
