Boxing Boxes

 I shop online periodically.  I always save the boxes for a while to determine if I can use them for something else. (I've been trying to declutter and organize lately.) 

I've made a pact with myself that if I don't use them within 30 days, I break them down and take them to a recycle station. After all, more boxes will be on the way...eventually. 

Being that I frequent fast food restaurants, (Don't judge me.) I accumulate a lot of paper napkins. (Why throw them away when I can use them in the car or at home*?)

 For a while I stacked them on top of the microwave. That stack can get so large, it tumbles over.  I decorated one of the small, cardboard  shipment boxes using one napkin, acrylic paint, felt and air-dry clay to decorate a box to keep them in. I happened to have all I needed in my craft stash. 

* I never buy paper napkins. I use cloth and launder them. I purchase the cloth napkins in good condition from thrift stores.  Since I'm at a vintage age 🙂, I also have vintage 

tablecloths that have matching napkins. 

That's it ***

Faux Leather Redo

My Sis, DPM, gave me  a beautiful bronze purse some years ago after she'd returned from a vacation. I would only use the purse on special occasions.  Well, you know the saying, "Use it or lose it." Though I rarely used the purse, the times that I would I began noticing the leather was peeling. It got so bad that I was leaving a trail of leather crumbs everywhere I walked. 

When I told Sis about it she said,  "Just throw it away. It isn't real leather."  

I didn't want to do that. It was special to me and it had beautiful hardware. 

Of course I turned to the sage of all sages (if it was a person), GOOGLE who passed me off to YOUTUBE.

I came across a video at  Kelly Barlow Creations.  She'd redone a faux leather desk chair that had started to peel.   After viewing her video I ordered the product from Amazon. Each bottle was about $7.00.

It would seem that 4 oz. wouldn't be enough but I had some left over.

BEFORE

I applied about 3 coats, allowing the paint to dry before adding another coat. It dries fast (about 30 minutes) so the task isn't laborious. 

                                                     

                                                                AFTER

After all coats had dried I applied 3 coats of the Acrylic Finisher. The yellow you see in the side picture is newspaper I had stuffed inside the purse.

I think it came out well. There are some places if you look closely you can see flaws. But, that's just the sign of a well loved article.  I'm back in business with my bronze handbag.

That's it***

Kelly Barlow Creations

Purse charms/Key rings/ Lanyard

 G. J. and I were in charge of our April Red Hat event. The chapter  usually has a "lovely parting gift" for each person that attends. I told my  event buddy that I'd been working on these, showed  her a sample and we both decided that they would be fine as a gift.

At first it was going to be a pendant on a gold or silver chain. Then I realized some are sensitive to various metals. I didn't want to use ribbon or cord so I had to rethink the project.

💡

A purse charm would be away from the body and it would be less prone to cause sensitivity.

     I painted one side of wooden circles purple for Red Hatters and pink for Pink Hatters. Let it dry. I drilled a hole at the top of each one.

 I painted the back side some form of gold or silver. A  fellow crafter had given me strands of pearls and strands of gold beads which were perfect for this project.  With the beads being on a strand it was much easier to wrap them around the glass bubble picture of each one and slowly pull the string after the beads were in place. I used E-6000 glue for all adherences. 

Pearls in place, Gold beads in place, names on the back, etc. Let it dry.

Now it was time to  do individual beading to make the dangly, thingies that would hang off of the purse charm.
Yep, you're seeing it right. I used an empty egg crate to separate my beads. 

The danglies were then attached to the blank key chains which I purchased from Amazon. 

SIDEBAR: I noticed that some of the key chains had a straight piece of wire in between the groove where the keys go.  Not knowing what it was, I inquired and discovered that it was there to help separate the clip so that the keys could slide on easier. BTW- A staple remover works well also when separating to add keys. No more ruined manicures.

You'll see the results of the dangly, thingies here and below.

The fronts and backs were all finished with at least three coats of Triple Thick. This product gives a glassy, glossy appearance to projects and helps protect them.

They needed some type of packaging and personalization so  I used card stock and personalized everyone's name on their individual purse charm.

This was a fun project and turned out just the way I wanted it to.

That's it ***