Happy Wednesday!
I have a little some old and a little something new (and a little something twinkly) for you.
The little something old:
A wooden box that I found at an estate sale for $3.
Apparently, the seller’s late uncle traveled with the circus
and kept his Lionel trains in these wooden boxes with foam padding inside.
The little something new:
DecoArt just unveiled a new line of multi-surface satin paints
and asked me if I’d like to try them.
I’ve been a DecoArt groupie since way back in the faux zinc tutorial days,
so I was happy to try the new line.
And, as expected, I love it.
It goes on just about any surface you can imagine,
including fabric (and it’s washable).
I used Black Tie, Night Sky, and Cottonball…
…to makeover my little wooden box into a twinkly nightstand for Edyn’s room.
I think it turned out so sweet!
You could do this to a wooden box of your own, or a vintage suitcase,
a table drawer, a crate turned upside down, etc.
Supplies:
DecoArt Multi-Surface Satin Paint in Cottonball, Night Sky, Black Tie
Brushes
Drill
White LED light strand
9/64-inch drill bit (or whatever will fit the diameter of your LED bulb)
Electrical tape or a hot glue gun
The first thing I did was clean and sand the box.
It had clearly been used for something other than train transportation at some point!
Then, I painted the whole thing in Cottonball white.
I mixed about a 50:50 ratio of Black Tie and Night Sky to get a deep, black blue, night sky shade,
and then I painted a rectangle on the front of the box.
(You could use painter’s tape for a perfect rectangle, but I wanted mine to look painterly.)
It took two coats to completely cover the white.
I used my sanding sponge to distress it a bit when I was done!
Next, I drilled scattered holes within the blue rectangle.
Note: I would do this right after you paint your blue outline.
I did it after I completely painted it and as you can see, I had some touchup work to do from the drill bit!
Here’s a closeup of the buttery, satin finish in the light.
I’m loving this new paint line! You’ll see more of it soon.
Using a tiny paint brush and the Cottonball white, I painted white stars and tiny dots.
On the lid, I used the same Night Sky & Black Tie mixture to paint
“fais de beau rêves”,
which means sweet dreams (“make beautiful dreams”) in French.
I mixed the paint with just a teeny bit of silver gilding wax that I had on hand
to create a shimmery dark blue.
I was so happy that it worked!
This is the only paint (that I’ve tried) that doesn’t cancel out the metallics in the gilding paste and turn it dull.
{love}
(You can bet I’ve gilded another piece with colored gilding wax since!)
FYI…DecoArt just launched a bunch of new stencils too,
including several different alphabet styles if you don’t fancy your own handwriting.
I also painted a little moon…mostly because my lettering was off-centered, darn it!
After everything was painted, it was time for the twinkly LED lights.
LED lights emit a whiter (versus amber light) and most importantly, they are cool to the touch.
I got this LED light strand at Michael’s.
I recommend the PLUG-IN lights.
You don’t want to be replacing batteries every week!
I inserted each bulb into the holes from inside the box and secured the wires (the insulated wires)
down with a low temp hot glue gun.
You could use electric tape to hold the wires down, but it wasn’t sticking to the wood.
You just want to make sure that your glue isn’t hot enough to damage the insulated protection around the wires.
(I didn’t even bother painting the inside. I know. 1/2-inch foam padding had been hot glued
and quite frankly, I didn’t want to sit there and scrape and sand all day…and I was just going to glue wires to it!)
I drilled a large hole through the back for the plug to fit through, plugged it in,
and watched it twinkle (along with Edyn’s eyes)!
To celebrate the launch of the Multi-Surface Paint line,
which just hit aisles this week,
DecoArt is offering a rebate.
(I checked Michael’s while I was there yesterday and the bottles retail for $1.39.)
American Multi-Surface Satins are available for purchase at Michaels, A.C. Moore, Hobby Lobby,
and other fine craft retailers.
Have a happy rest of the week!
What have you been working on?
Jami
This is a DecoArt sponsored post.
All thoughts and opinions are honest and my very own.
It’s no secret that I love their quality paints!
Linking with Miss Mustard Seed’s fabulous Furniture Feature Friday party!