Repurposing: Upcycled Cigar Box Tea Storage II

 

I mentioned in another post that there was a part II and here it is. While I was busy ordering a special tea for Mr. Chocolate, little did I know that a sweet friend who'd taken a trip to London with her family last year, would be sending us a wonderful assortment of teas from there! Natch, they needed storage befitting their origin.

Supplies:

• Cigar Box
• Acrylic Paints
• Vinyl
• Digital Images
• Crown Embellishment

As I mentioned in my other post, I get my cigar boxes from Total Wine. They're usually on a wall behind the registers. Just take them to the register. 

We might live in the Copper State but it's also a Turquoise State with several turquoise mines so this is an homage to that, plus I love the color! I sanded over the parts of the label I couldn't remove and then painted with Waverly No Prep Paint in Lagoon. I painted the inside edges in case my paper calculations were off. 

The upside to being a paper hoarder, I mean having an extensive scrapbook paper collection, is you have papers for every color project! I chose this marbled paper (Recollections) with gold foiling for my interior, measured, cut, and then applied using Mod Podge Matte. 

Once the inside was done, I dry brushed some white and gold paints on the exterior and then gathered my embellishments. I found a tea sentiment and teapot in Cricut Design Space, cut those from black and gold vinyl as shown, and chose a metal crown from a pack I bought at a stamping show.

I positioned and applied my vinyl, then using Loctite Gel Superglue, applied the crown.

The box had an oval shape engraved in it and debated about covering it with paper but I decided it made a good frame for the crown. 

So that's the story of Tea Box I and Tea Box II and we will each enjoy many tea times to come!

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A Stroll Through Life

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Sundays on Silverado

Repurposing: Upcycled Cigar Box to Tea Storage I

 

As much as I may ever joke about my Iced Mocha addiction, we drink a LOT of tea in this house. On a trip last year, the place we stayed had this tea Mr. Chocolate fell in love with. It turned out to be something that had to be specially ordered so I got him a big box for Christmas and it literally came in a cardboard box. Well, that wouldn't do! I have a stash of cigar boxes and knew they were perfect for this project. And stay tuned because there will be a part two I'll share this week.

Supplies:

• Wood Cigar Box (Total Wine sells these for cheap!)
• Acrylic Paint
• Scrapbook Paper
• Mod Podge (I used Matte)
• Vinyl
• Embellishments

Although I haven't gotten any recently, I think Total Wine still sells their empty cigar boxes. I've gotten them for as little as $.99. You can also sometimes get wood crates and other boxes too. These have run me $4-5. 

I grabbed one I had in my stash, sanded any rough edges and then painted using Waverly No Prep Acrylic Paint in Truffle. 

Love this paint so much! I kept the outside pretty simple because Mr. Chocolate is the opposite of me when it comes to blinging things up!

I measured the scrapbook paper I chose (and yes, when I applied it I had a little gap but it'll be covered by tea so...) and used Mod Podge Matte to glue it inside the box. Then I taped off the bottom and went around the edges with silver. 

I chose silver vinyl (Cricut) and an image from Cricut Design Space, sized and cut.

I placed it on top of the box to make sure it was well positioned and then applied using my scraper. To finish, I found some self-adhesive metal studs. 

I let the vinyl design be my guide to where I placed them and applied them until I was satisfied. 

Of course these bougie tea bags are slightly larger than normal so I had to rearrange to close but the most important thing is, Mr. Chocolate loves his box! 

I mentioned there's a part two coming. It was a very Tea Christmas! Stay tuned.

Sharing At: 

A Stroll Through Life

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Sundays on Silverado

Goodwill Finds: From Plain to Pretty Candleholders for Less Than The Cost of One

 

I continue to "upscale" my Halloween decor.  Since PhD Man left for college I've switched out a bit each year. This year I knew I wanted some more candleholders to give height and depth to my Halloween decor so, masked up and went to my local Goodwill to see what I could find because as Makers, we're not going to go pay big money for the look we want right? 

Supplies: 

• Thrifted Candleholders 
• Acrylic Paints ( I used Craftsmart Dark Grey, Black  and Martha Stewart Metallic Titanium)
• Antique Gold Rub n Buff

Here's what I found: three un related pieces that would work together

I have no idea what the one on the left is made of but it's heavy ! I cleaned  my finds to get any residue off and then got to work!

Step 1: 

After cleaning, removing stickers etc. paint with a base coat to make everything match. I used Craftsmart Acrylic paint from Michaels in Dark Grey:

I like how they almost look like cement but I wanted more shine. 

Step 2:

Once they were dry, I went back over them with Martha Stewart Metallic Titanium (also Michaels). But then they were too shiny! So I dabbed on a black glaze and wiped off to age them just the right amount. I'm like Goldilocks...too matte...too shiny...just right.

Step 3: 

I wanted to bring out the detail and the raised edges so I grabbed the Rub n Buff from my Faux Spooky Candle project and went over the raised areas, finishing the "buff" part with a soft cloth. 

I'm so happy with how the turned out and coordinate not only with each other but the rest of my decor! While I made these for Halloween decorating, I kept them versatile enough that I can use whenever. Total cost: $9 for all three pieces. 

Until next time...

Eclectic Red Barn

Halloween: Trash to Treasure Spooky Faux Candles

I've been on a bit of a "roll" lately. Pun intended. I have several projects I'm excited to share starting  with this one: Haunted Faux Candles made from repurposed craft rolls. We'd hoped to make another trip to Disneyland around this time but 2020 had other plans. Subconsciously, I think some of my Halloween ideas came from fond memories of things like the Haunted Mansion which this project reminds me of with its Gothic spookiness. 

Supplies: 

• Empty Craft / Wrapping Paper / Paper Towel Rolls. I used empty vinyl rolls and an empty roll from some tulle. I prefer these to paper towel rolls because they're a bit thicker and heartier. 
• Paint. I used Craftsmart Acrylics from Michaels
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun. Stash
• Rub n Buff. Available where fine art supplies are sold

Step 1: 

Drizzle hot glue along the top of your rolls to resemble dripping candle wax.

There's no right or wrong way to do this just drip drip here, drip drip there. 

Step 2: 

Once the glue has set, paint with color of your choice. I used white as shown. 

At this point it's personal preference how many coats of paint you use. I went back over with another coat then dry brushed with silver and black to age them. 

Step 3: 

Once you're satisfied with your candles, you can stop there unless you're me. I wanted to make these look elegant so I decided to highlight some of the candle drips using Antique Gold Rub N Buff. You can also do this with acrylic paint but there's a luster with the Rib N Buff that I love! 

It just so happened that a couple of the craft rolls were the right size to hold real tea light candles ( I won't burn these because "fire hazard" but I like the look) 

Where tea lights won't fit, you can rest an ornament. 

Next time, I'll share the candleholders I did for these! Until then...

Eclectic Red Barn

Follow The Yellow Brick Home

BFF Open House Link Party

Happy Friday Eve all! Whew. Another week gone by  just like that. Hope it was a good one for you. Let's take a look at some wonderful ideas from last week's party shall we?

Whether for Easter specifically or Spring Decor in general, these decoupaged eggs from Craftify My Love are a great touch of Spring. 

Tassels are everywhere from jewelry to all kinds of accessories. Domestic Bliss Squared has a great DIY tutorial to make these Layered Tassels so you can make as many as you like in all the colors you love! 

When people tease me about all the stuff I make, I joke that I have a "Martha Stewart Personality Disorder" because I'd rather DIY. Martha and I part ways though when it comes to gardening. Just never took to it. So this post from Repurpose and Upcycle on how to incorporate Air Plants into decor is right up my alley because I don't think even I can kill these. I bought some old sugar molds at a Junk Show that are screaming for these! 

With Girl Scout Cookie season over, you don't have to wait until next year to get your Thin Mint fix. Family Cookie Recipes has got you covered with these Homemade Thin Mints. 

Now let's see what everyone's been up to this week! Hoping this works smoothly as INLINKZ has switched over to a new format so bear with me if you can't link up right away! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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