Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone that is celebrating Thanksgiving today a very happy one.  Wishing you a day filled with good company, good food, laughter, and loveJ

Warm hugs,

Marla <3 o:p="">

Trunk Doll Challenge Revisited

I never did finish the trunk doll challenge for the online doll club I belong to on time but I am still working on it and have developed an interest in altering boxes as a result (one can never have too many hobbies or too many shoes).  I am on my third box for the trunk doll challenge which might be why I haven’t finished it on time.  I wrote a post about the first box I made which quite frankly was a disaster.  My husband made me the second box but by then I had lost interest in covering a doll trunk with fabric.  My Artistic ADD clicked in and I had to chase all other things shiny down the rabbit hole again.  This time what caught my attention was antique watercolor boxes.  So of course I had to go and buy several cigar boxes to alter into faux antique watercolor boxes and while I was on the lookout for cigar boxes I found a few wooden wine boxes.  While chasing the shiny watercolor boxes down the rabbit hole I became enthralled with antique French Mignonettes and their traveling trunks.  So the chasing something shiny brought me back to the beginning and now I had a more interesting idea for the doll trunk challenge even though there was no longer time to make the deadline. 

But first I needed to create the faux antique watercolor box.  

Here are pictures of the unfinished cigar box I used and yet to be altered wine box.  The wine box in the picture is a bit larger than the one I wound up using for the doll travel trunk but alas, I didn’t take a picture of the wine box I wound up using for the travel trunk before altering it.  It looked pretty similar to the larger one in the picture, just smaller.

I altered a label on the computer for the watercolor box with a free graphic unlettered label from the graphic’s fairy http://thegraphicsfairy.com/category/printables/ (awesome site if you are a mixed media artist).  I changed the color to sepia and then hand colored it with watercolors as a watercolorist might do with their watercolor box label.  I then “antiqued” it with a sepia stamp pad. 

While I was having fun making a watercolor box label I decided to make a label for the doll traveling trunk.  I used the same methods for creating an antique label for the trunk but just made it larger.

Since I really don’t like playing with stinky stains I used Golden acrylic paints (my absolutely favorite acrylic paints) to achieve the antiquing effect on the boxes.  I also wanted to make separate areas in the watercolor box as the antique ones have and separate areas in the doll travel trunk as many of the antique ones also have so I had my husband cut some pieces of pine wood to fit the boxes and create sections.   These are some pictures of the watercolor box I “antiqued.”  I haven’t varnished it yet and plan to alter the tin and fill it with an on the go watercolor pallet.  I’ll post more pictures when it is complete.

Here are some pictures of the “antiqued” wine box doll traveling trunk.  Not sure yet what I am going to do with the holes in front yet but will keep you posted.

The moral of the story, Sometimes it’s okay to follow your Artistic ADD down the rabbit hole.  You never know where it will lead you, and that can be half of the fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog and wishing you a very creative day.