Saturday Savers - Izzy

Hi bloggers, 

It's my turn (Izzy) to make a sample for Saturday Savers this week with an upcycled box altered with the Gelli Arts plate. 

A while back my (musician) son asked me to "make a box" for his guitar picks. 

So I looked in my "blue box" (that's where I keep all the things I want to alter/upcycle) and found this little clear plastic box. Not sure where it came from... Ferrero Rocher comes to mind... but might not be. 

Anyway... perfect size... now for the upcycling. 

I could have used Alcohol inks but I wanted an opaque finish, then I thought PaperArtsy Fresco Finish.... which I knew would work well on non porous surfaces... and then.. why not the Gelli Arts plate. I have used it successfully on wood before, why not this plastic box?

Well, I can tell you that it turned out much better than I thought. 

Here's the process... 

Hope you like it :)

1/ The box came all clear. Yes, even the base was clear, but I had already started painting when I realised I had not taken a picture of the non-altered box. So imagine it without the white bottom. 

2/ I painted it with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Snowflake paint. Two coats... for a real opaque coverage.

3/ Using the Sizzix die, I cut several hexagons. KEEP the off-cut, you will need it later.

I placed them on my Gelli Arts plate, and added the Fresco Finish paints in South Pacific, Beach Hut and Guacamole.

4/ Mixed the paint with a brayer and pressed the Harlequin mask on the paint.

Then I lifted the mask and the hexagons and pressed the box onto the plate. 

See that I missed a spot there in the middle? I could have hidden this, but I wanted to show it to you in case the same happens to you, and it's bound to happen. If it does, just pick up a bit of paint from your Gelli Arts plate, using a brush and "fill the gaps". If you dab with your brush, you will get an uneven / textured effect, which is what you want here. 

That was the bottom of the box. Not that it will show, but starting with the bottom of the box, if  you mess it up, it does not matter as much as the top ;) Great way to "test" and try and master the technique before you move onto the sides that will show!

1/ Here we go again... top of the box.

Hexagons on the clean plate>> brayer the paint on top>> apply the masks to add a pattern and remove them.

See how I put different masks? the Harlequin is for the top of the box and the Dots for the sides.

In one go, I then covered the whole box with same colours and pattern.

The corners on my box are round... it's ok, just "roll" the box onto the plate and it will get covered with paint very easily.

2/ Here's what the box looks like now (dried it with a heat tool. Watch out, the plastic stays warm for a bit...)

3/ Did you keep this off-cut as I suggested? Now is the time to use it. Place it on top of your white hexagons and stamp the music notes with black StazOn. Keep it in place and trace the hexagon with a black permanent pen

4/ Here's what the box now looks like

You can then stamp away... I added music words and notes using CI-366. 

First in black. Then going through my son's picks, the brown one was the only one that would not clash too much on here. So I added some brown music notes to match (Sepia Archival ink).

To finish, I glued a guitar pick on top using Glossy Accents.

Box and picks

Details of the top

and the sides

 I used:

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints: Beach Hut, Guacamole, South Pacific, Snowflake

Masks: any from The Crafter's Workshop + Tando Creative

Stamps: Crafty Individuals CI-366 and CI-309

Gelli Arts plate

StazOn ink

Archival ink: Sepia

Sizzix Framelits Hexagons

Speedball Brayer

Varnish
Glossy Accents

Permanent pen: Black

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