Monday, September 8, 2014

Turtle Basket Makeover

My Brother Gave me this ugly old sewing basket.....he said that I would know what to do with it.....well, it just so happens that I did know what to do with it. I neede some storage in my bathroom. I needed something to store our extras...soap, shampoo, etc. So, this would be just the right size to fit on top of the bathroom shelves.


The first step, rip out the innards and paint with acrylic paint.


The next step....paint the outside. I used several colors of acrylic paints to get a soft soft soft yellow.

I used several layers of paint....letting them dry in between coats. This way, the fabric (and batting underneath the fabric) has a chance to dry thoroughly. Each coat of paint is a mix of yellow, sand and white colors. The effect on the fabric is a suede look. I lightly  brushed the wicker with white paint.
I also trimmed with turquoise paint.

This is a Tjap (pronounced something like "chop") which I bought from Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts....she has amazingly cool stuff! The Turtle Tjap was used to create a wax relief for batik.

I decided to use the Turtle Tjap as a stamp.
I painted turquoise paint onto the Tjap and stamped it. Yes....I did several tests to be sure things would go well.
Okay, so this was cool....I picked up this trim at a thrift shop while the turtles were drying!!!! I know! How does that little perfect thing happen? I cut out and glued little suns on the basket.
Here is a detail. Then, of course, the next step was to trim with turquoise paint.
After! Basket Makeover! Turtle Basket is in its place and doing its job......and I like it....so does Scot.YAY!