Dear Blog Friends...Grab yourself a Coffee, Tea, Wine, anything and prepare yourself for a long and interesting post filled with an overload of photos!!! I tried keeping them to a minimum but I have so much to share that I found it a little difficult....
Three years ago I altered a Stationery Caddy of mine...It was well used and loved but lately was looking a little tired and worn out. So last week I took the time and gave it a revamp! I absolutely Love the new look...very industrial looking with a little touch of Steampunk as well.
I present to you....
~~~~~ My new caddy ~~~~~
With the previous one the standard question was "How long did it take you to do?" I took four days working on this one.
Day one was spend scraping all the previous medium and decorations off. A good soak and scrubbing followed and after some drying time I painted a coat of Black Gesso onto it. Before bedtime I added a thick layer of Prima Clear Crackle Paste to the corners and sides panels. I opted to keep the texture on the drawers, firstly because it still looked fine and secondly...it was a real mission to get it on in the first place...lol...had to make it a little easier on myself! I did paint them with the black Gesso as well. Whilst soaking the caddy I painted the drawers with Distress Paints Broken China and Cracked Pistachio. After some drying time I also sprayed some Lindy's Stampgang Time Travel Teal mist on. I dry brushed some of the Prima paints on as well. In the end I found it all a bit too shiny and whilst busy with the Rust Paste on the caddy later on...I watered down some of the Brown paste and brushed that on as well...They now have a lovely weathered Patina look to them! I also soaked some pieces of cheesecloth that I have measured and cut to size in Tokreen and placed them on my craftmat to dry overnight.
Day two started with the painting of all the Dusty Attic Chipboard pieces...I used seven packets of different Gogs and two sized wings on here. I also glued the cheesecloth on the caddy. I then painted it all using Prima Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints Metallique Deep Water and Opal Magic Aqua-Rose. Whilst waiting for it all to dry I glued the embellishments onto the drawers. I used mainly Prima Mechanicals and Vintage Trinkets and some odds and ends from my trinket stash...All the elements were adhered using Art Basics Heavy Body Gel. What an amazing medium!!! I ended the day by placing and gluing the elements on the backside of the caddy.
Day three saw me battling to add the elements to the sides of the caddy...not always the easiest to do, for both sides had a heavy embellishment cluster that kept falling of whilst working on the other side...Not even using the glue gun as well worked...I just had to be a little patience and wait before turning it around. You might ask why I did not use a Heatgun? I did try...but it being a plastic object made the Gesso and Paint bubble and lift...patience just had to do! I also completed decorating the lid.
Then on day four I could do the really fun part of it all...The Prima Rust Paste!!! I just had a blast applying it and seeing the entire caddy change into a grungy well worn looking object...
~~~ The Lid ~~~
On the lid I used a The Crafters Workshop stencil and Studio 490 Black Embossing Paste to stencil the word ART and some texture on. I also used the Distressed Diamond Stencil from Dusty Attic in the top left corner. Once dry, I replaced the Art stencil and used the Dusty Attic Threaded Beads Stencil on top of it with some black glitter coloured Gel Medium.
~~~ The Drawers ~~~
As you can see, I kept the Drawer Pulls as well...I did however take the corner embellishments of and added new ones. I did a lot of layering, Chipboard on chipboard, Trinkets on chipboard and embellishments on embellishments. I painted some of the metal embellishments...Twice!!! The first attempt was just the wrong colour combo...So paint remover out and tried again. Much happier with the second try. Here I used Distress Paints Broken China and Forest Moss. I wiped some Mushroom Alcohol Ink onto the Watch faces and used the same on the embellishments too.
~~~ Left Side ~~~
The flat pieces that are connecting some of the Cogs were stripped from
an old Typewriter. I aged them with vinegar to get the rusted effect. The wings from Dusty Attic were...wait for it...yes...soaked in warm water and distressed and dried with a Heatgun!!! I painted them with Prima Metallique Silver Spoon Paint and dusted the following Perfect Pearls onto them...Blue Smoke, Forever Green and Forever Red.
~~~ The Back ~~~
This time round I did pay more attention to the back panel as well. The main pieces are the two Dusty Cog Clusters in the corners. I am really impressed with the look they added to this panel. I loved the Taps I had added, but wished I had some of the water-drops left...I felt it was useless having the empty Taps on here. Light-bulb moment...make my own water-drops!!! I formed some drops using Dimensional Glue on my craft sheet and left them overnight to dry...Viola!!! Loving the added interest of the air-bubbles inside the drops...
One of the "bad" things about close-ups like these...I see all the clue spots and missed paint spots...but rest assure...they are now all covered!
~~~ Right Side ~~~
I applied the Rust Paste in such a way that some of the blue paint is still visible. Was aiming for a Patina kind of effect. The arm with the little Angel is movable...Fun playing with it and have the Angel shift position now and then...
~~~~~
If you are still with me...Thank You and congratulations for reading through it all!!!!
I have some behind the scenes photos for you and also the link again should you wish to see the "Old" caddy.
Painted and all the elements added...The white spots are of course some Prima Art stones and Mini Art Stones. All for added texture.
My desk...this was nearing the end, most of the elements were already added...lol!
The different stages of achieving the textured effects on my Chipboard...First a coating of Rusty Hinge Distress Paint. Random dabbing of Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint. Mixed some Tilt-a-Wheel Teal Magical's from Lindy's with texture paste and lastly mixed some Vintage Photo Distress Paint with some Magic Powder from 13@rts and dabbed that on. Forgot to take a photo, but in the close-ups one can see that I also sprinkled some clear UTEE randomly and heat set it...
Should you be interested in these or any other Dusty Attic chipboards or products, please visit the Dusty Attic on-line store...
Wishing you all well...go and create!!!
Art is a shadow of what a person is thinking...
a small glimpse of what they hold inside.
Little secrets, regrets, joys...
every line has its own meaning.
~Sarah~
