Faux Antique Ephemera Box

Serendipity would have it that for my very first StencilClub Voices post, I had the joy of working with some brand new Stencil Club designs that were a collaboration between Seth Apter and MaryBeth Shaw. Using Seth's grunge technique and his Emerald Creek Baked Texture Embossing Powder seemed like a perfect compliment to the new designs.

I live in a small space, so storage solutions have to be both functional and attractive. I keep many of my supplies in decorative shoeboxes, which are then artfully arranged on my tables, bookshelves and closets. Since I had recently purchased some new clogs, there was a nice clean Dansko box waiting to be transformed.

Last winter I took a class given by Seth at the Ink Pad NYC. (And I am happy to announce that I am now teaching there! Can you see me happy dancing?)  The class was called Radiant Rust. I decided to apply the grunge and bling techniques I learned from Seth to my humble shoebox.

Ready to paint the shoebox with black gesso.

I started by painting the outside with black gesso.

When it was dry, I began the grunge process.

The box was dry and ready for the "grunge" process.

Color 1 was applied with Seth's special technique.

Color 2 was added.

Color 3.

Almost done with the grunge technique.

Grunged box, ready for the "bling" of Baked Texture through the new stencils.

Once the grunge effect was dry, the magic began: I added Ancient Amber embossing powder through the new set of stencils. I used a VersaMagic stamp pad first, then sprinkled on the powder, tapped off the excess, and zapped it with a heat gun. I repeated the process all over with most of the January StencilClub set. When the light catches it right, the effect is magical, like petrified wood in an ancient forest.

The VersaMark goes on clear, but is sticky and holds the embossing powder.

Ancient Amber embossing powder was generously sprinkled on.

Excess embossing powder was tapped off, leaving the stencil design.

After a few minutes with the heat gun, the embossing powder melted and shimmered.

A closeup of the new stencils over the grunged background.

 The effect was great, but I felt that a central focus was needed, so I pulled out one of my "go-to" stencils: a fleur de lis compass rose, which was part of Gwen Lafluer's recent StencilClub set. This time, I used Patina Oxide embossing powder. The fleur de lis compass rose was just what the box needed to add some extra magic.

One of the stencils from the July 2018 Ceramic Tiles design set was added to the box.

I added the fleur de lis compass rose on the top and half on the front.

An extra touch was a keyhole shaped brad that I placed in the center of the outside.

I decided that it needed just a little something more...maybe legs? Maybe a knob to open it? I searched around my art storage drawers and found a set of beautiful aqua floral knobs that I picked up on sale a while ago. The color worked...the design was not a perfect match, but the shape and color were right. I threw caution to the wind and poked a hole right through the center of the compass rose fleur de lis shape.

 

It was just right!

 

Now the big decision: do I fill the box with stamps? stencils? pencils? paper scraps? Decisions, decisions! Maybe I'll have to make a few more of these Faux Antique Boxes since I'm always adding to my art supply collection!

The Humble Shoe Box: Upcycled and Transformed

When I saw some gorgeous yellow embroidered floral trim on the Gwen Lafluer Studios website, my inner flower-child cried out for it. Yellow is my happy color, my "go-to" color, and I visualized wearing it on the bottom of my faded jeans, stitching it to a peasant shirt, or combining it with my own fabrics for a decorative pillow cover. All of those ideas would have been beautiful...but impractical. I didn't want to get the trim dirty or ruin the shimmer with wear and tear or repeated washing. It was also a little scratchy, so it wasn't quite right for my adult post flower-child wardrobe or to rest my head on.

So, I thought a little harder, and realized it would be just right for up-cycling a shoe box. I have been painting, collaging, stamping, stenciling and decorating the humble shoe box for years. As luck would have it, an empty box on my design table was just the right size for the gorgeous yellow trim. Sadly, I hadn't ordered enough to cover the whole box, so I rummaged around my stash and auditioned a few fabrics, ribbons and papers until I found a combination that I liked. I also discovered that Gwen's gorgeous patchwork sari silk trim went nicely with the yellow trim. I mixed both trims with an embroidered sheer sari silk remnant that I had been hoarding for years.

I started by draping the fabric and trims over the shoe box and lid, taping it lightly to see how it looked. I snapped photos as I went along so I would remember what worked and what didn't.

"Auditioning" fabrics, which are lightly wrapped on the shoe box.

Once I decided on the arrangement, I took all the pieces off the box and started painting. The box was red and shiny, and I could see the color peeking through the sheer white fabric, so I knew the lid needed white gesso. It took a couple coats to tone down the red.

Covering the shiny red box with white gesso.

 After the white gesso was dry, I used Golden heavy matte gel to adhere the white sari silk to the box top. I carefully wrapped it around the edges and glued it in place. While that dried, I set to work on the bottom of the box.

After the gesso dried, heavy gel medium was used to wrap sari silk scraps around the lid.

 Where the lid and top of the box met, I painted yellow. I knew that I couldn't use anything thick above the wide (2.75") yellow trim or it would be hard to close the box.  Next, I applied heavy gel to the bottom 3/4 of the box and added the yellow trim to the front and back. I used heavy gel at the edges of the trim to prevent fraying.

The top was painted yellow to compliment the trim, but allow the box to close easily.

While auditioning the fabrics and papers, I had thought I would use a thick fabric collage of "scrappy" fabric on the sides, but changed my mind and used some commercial scrapbooking paper instead.

An India-inspired commercial scrapbooking paper was used on the box sides.

 The sheer white silk fabric on the top wasn't quite wide enough to cover the whole left and right sides of the box top, so I auditioned a bunch of ribbons and fabrics, finally deciding to layer some wide orange grosgrain ribbon with an India-inspired orange and pink plaid ribbon.

Two types of ribbon decorate the box side lid, complimenting the paper below.

While the bottom dried, I attached the sari patchwork trim across the lid vertically, which nicely covered the join mark where the two pieces of white silk met. I wanted to keep the softness and loft of the sari patchwork, so rather than gluing it in place and risking it getting flat, hard or discolored, I attached it by poking a hole (with an awl) through the fabric and lid edge, then pushing a large brass brad through and flattening it on the inside. The brads add to the decorative effect and are also very strong.

An awl was used to poke a hole through the cardboard and fabric.

The patchwork sari silk was attached to the lid with brass brads.

The two trims are united with a dangling Turkmen Jewelry component.

 An important part to my design was a dangling jewel, which came as part of my order of Going Global Turkmen Jewelry Parts. It was just the perfect adornment for the box, and although it is fairly small, works nicely to unite the fabrics and colors of the top, bottom and sides, adding just the right bit of magic and mystery to what used to be an ordinary shoe box. I hand-sewed it to the sari patchwork fabric using red thread.

Side view of the finished box.

Below is a photo of my newest storage box, sitting atop some of the others I have made over the years. With all my art supplies, jewelry components, paper scraps, fabric scraps, photos, and ephemera, I am sure I will fill up my newest storage box very soon!

Other boxes in my collection were covered with newsprint, stamps, stencils, craypa, fabric, and painted deli paper.

Like the trims I used? The great news is that you can get 10% off on any trims on Gwen's website during the month of November...just in time to create some up-cycled shoe boxes to use for holiday gift-giving! Please also check out what the other Artist Tribe members are making in November using the gorgeous trims that Gwen Lafleur carries on her website. You can see them on Gwen's blog, or click here to see all the Artist Tribe projects.