Scrapping On The Edge: Out of the Coccoon

Hi Everyone,

I am here today to share with you another upcycled op shop creation. This month I was excited to challenge myself, my challenge was to use colours I rarely use (pink is usually my enemy), decorate with stamps, paint and markers only and to use NO metal of any sort (I use metal in everything!!!). So for me this was a tough personal challenge but I never back down from a challenge, especially one I set myself. Super happy with the outcome and now my daughter has a lovely wooden box to keep all her treasures in.

View from the front....

View from the back....

Below you will see what this box previously looked like, it was sad, very very sad. Although sad, it definitely had potential. Like many things I salvage, a little love was in order.

To begin my project I gave the entire box both inside and out a coat of Art Basics Heavy White Gesso (not pictured, sorry!). The vibrant colour comes from a combination of two Golden paints, Teal and Quinacridone Magenta. I applied the slightly watered down paint very randomly, allowing to blend and bleed in places. Going back after it had dried and adding more colour in places here and there, there was no science to this application, very much completely random.

While my paint was drying I took two sets of Prima Cling Stamps (Rust & Dust and Don't Forget to Fly) and using black archival ink I stamped onto white tissue paper. I stamped one sheet for my box lid with butterflies and circles and two long strips to wrap around my box edge with the bubbles stamp.

Flipping my tissue paper over I coloured the back in sections with Sharpie pens.

Now the fun begins, to apply the paper to the box I used Art Basics Soft Gloss Gel. This was quite a delicate operation so go gently. Apply a base coat of Art Basics Soft Gloss Gel, pat down tissue paper and then apply a top coat of Art Basics Soft Gloss Gel. Once completely dried I outlined all edges, circles and butterflies with a black PITT pen and smudged with my finger.

The stamped wording you can see was added after the first layer of tissue paper. I stamped all my wording onto another tissue paper, and again applied the same way with Soft Gloss Gel. To finish I gave the bottom of the box, inside and under the lid a coat of lovely Art Basic Heavy Black Gesso (not pictured).