A place for everything - Full post

Hello everyone!

        Welcome back to my full post of the third and final creation I did for The Artistic Stamper. I think this was my favourite creation and it was a lovely way to complete my Guest Designer spot.

I really enjoyed making this creation - it had it's trials and mishaps but that made it even more wonderful.....I hope you like it!

I decided that for my final feature at The Artistic Stamper I would do a step-by-step...I love seeing these as it really gives a great insight into how someone works (in my case amid lots of mess!) I don't do as many as I would like because I get so involved in the creative process that I forget to take pictures, but this time I tried to be very aware of the camera as well! This is a very picture heavy post I am afraid - so grab a cuppa!

       This started out as items destined for the bin (recycled!) but I decided to put them to far better use!

after decorating these 'rubbish' items with stamps, paints and inks....(and some other craft stash items)

       I turned it into this......

 And here is how it was done....

First I prepared the tins and toilet roll by painting them top and bottom and inside with Nougat Fresco paint.

 I then cut some card to fit around the items

 I began the decorated card by stenciling some Antique Linen Distress paint - For this one I used the Crafters Workshop 'Art is' stencil.

 I didn't cover the entire piece of card....you'll see here I dabbed randomly across the stencil

 I dried the paint and then began to apply some inks....I blended some Weathered Wood, Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo.

 I then stamped some words - 'Create' and 'inspire' across the card using Weathered Wood DP and Frayed Burlap DP

 Then I stamped some images using the set and stamped them with Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Weathered Wood DI

These contrast wonderfully with the vivid Potting Soil Archival ink, which is what I used to stamp next. As you can see these all build up wonderful layers with the paint acting as a resist but the archival ink covering the paint....I never tire of doing this!.....

.....and good job too - because I had two more to do! Sorry, no pictures of those because I thought that would be a bit repetitive - I used the same technique, same set of stamps and inks but used different stencils to add some variety - the harlequin and damask stencil was used for the largest tin and for the smaller one I selected flourishes.

So now the pots were completed but I felt they needed something else...so I added some crochet ribbon in ivory and my favourite coffee coloured strand of crochet lace.

Now I could have finished here, but I was having so much fun. At one point I had intended to attach the tins to mount board and cut around the base and cover the bottom of the containers with lace to hide any rough edges. As usual with my projects they usually evolve at some point and when I was trying to de-clutter my art cupboard before Christmas I found a wooden tray - I have had it for years and I think it originally had wooden die cuts in and I had been using it as a save box for little scraps. I suddenly thought this could be a drawer! I could have the pots attached to a drawer...

So I got out the balsa wood and got to making a box. 

While the box was drying I decorated the tray - which for some strange reason I had stained bright orange many years ago. I painted it with a couple of coats of Nougat Fresco paint.

 I wanted it to be decorated in some way and so got an ornate metal corner and cut two pieces off

and stuck them on to the edge of the tray with Glossy accents glue.

 When dry I painted a couple of coats of the Nougat Fresco paint...

 then I sanded them lightly to reveal hints of the metal underneath.

 A metal drawer pull was attached to the front of the drawer.

Now to decorate the inside of the drawer. I did the same stamp and ink layering that the containers were decorated with.

Then I began to decorate the outside of the box...I wanted to get the kind of built up layers of cracked peeling paint that so many vintage items have...I wanted it to look like another layer just got painted over cracks. So I began to layer crackle glaze and paints, sanding down when slightly damp to reveal the paint underneath.

When it was dry and I had achieved the effect I wanted I sanded the whole box lightly and dry brushed Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint around the edges.

Then began the 'putting it together'!

I got some rolls of hemp string from my craft stash and added that to the collection. A reel of crochet lace was added - the wooden reel was already a gorgeous grey wood stained effect, I dry brushed it with some Snowflake fresco paint and then stamped the words 'Create' and 'inspire' with Picket Fence Distress paint very lightly. I didn't want it to be bright white, I wanted a barely there image.

Some glass vials were used to hold gold micro beads and some gold Frantage. A few wooden cotton reels were wrapped with embroidery cotton and a couple of pearl pins tucked into the threads.

A rusty heart, glitter heart and crochet flower from my craft stash were used to decorate the containers.

My button collection was hunted through to find lovely beige, brown and blue toned buttons and were placed into the smallest container.

and here it is - complete with some items from my craft equipment. A place for everything, and everything in it's place

    Thank you so much for being here to see the final creation I did for The Artistic Stamper. I hope you liked it!