Week 5 - Using Your Stash - Box

My partner received her box.  I showed a sneek peak of it in an earlier post.  Now I can show the whole thing.  I know this box would not be for everyone.  It is very grunge.  This box was a bit of a challenge for me because I had to use what was in my stash.  So I new I wanted to go grunge, I wanted the main color to be purple, and I wanted incorporate the quote by Pablo Picasso somehow.
The theme for the swap was to use from your stash.  I wanted to stay true to the theme so I went with what I had.  If I were to do it over, I would have gone and purchased regular purple paint.  It would have been so much easier.

1.  Removed all hardware from box.
2.  Painted the box brown.  This is just a quick base coat and the painting does not have to be perfect.
3.  Rubbed a candle on the edges of the box and places inside and out.
4.  Painted the box purple.  This is where my challenge began with this box.  Normal regular paint would just take one coat to cover the brown.  I  only had MS pearl paint in the purple.  It took 4 coats to get a solid purple color and to cover the brown.  Next time to the store with me. 
5.  Sand the box. T he paint where the wax is will come off easily (in theory) leaving a distressed box.  The challenge here was that I had to take off 4 layers of paint.  It all worked in the end.  Usually this step is fast, but took longer.
6.  Problem - my grungy purple box was ms pearlescent pretty and sparkly.  Not going to work.  So I had to think on how to dinge the box up a bit.  I took a wet paper towel and dipped it in the distress ink vintage photo and rubbed over the box.  It was a little better, but not quite there.  I sprayed coffee shop and deep plum glimmer mists on to the box and let them puddle a bit and then just dabbed the paper towel along the box, being careful not to wipe.  End result was a more grungier look.  This I could work with.
7.  I looked for grungy purple paper and couldn't find what I was looking for so I decided to make a tile for the top of the box out of ranger foil tape.  I embossed the piece and painted with gesso.  I really recommend that step when using alcohol inks.  I think the colors come out more vibrant with less ink. 
7.  I put it on the box and messed around with placement.  It just felt lost on there.  I took some purple magic mesh and put it on the box to anchor the tile. It was better, but it just felt like it was just floating on the box.
8. I messed around with covering the box in gears and other embellies - but it looked out of place.
 I decided to move onto the quote.  I was going to type it and put it in a book plate.  Then I decided to take off all the embellies and put the quote on the magic mesh.  I looked at using different letters, but I wanted the look to be grungy.  So I ended up using the metal letters I had in my stash.  I posted previously how I did those letters.
9.  Once I got the quote on, the tile still looked a bit lost on the box, so I decided to frame it out to give it a more finished and substantial appearnance.  I just took a piece of the foil tape and painted it with gesso.  Inked it in rust and then spray painted it with spray webbing.
10.  I just added a couple of embellishments as the box already had a lot going on with the tile and the quote. 
11.  I alcohol inked the hardware in rust and then put back on the box.
Finished box:

I also sent this partner the metal butterfly from an earlier post.  The dyed lace, the altered altoids tin, and dyed seam ribbon with flowers were all extras.  The tin is defenitely purple...I wanted to stick with her favorite color.  You really cannot tell from this angle, but there are feet on the box - I used hitch fastners.  It is a bit brighter in the picutres than up close.  I used purple patina inks and rust alcohol inks for the tin.  I used alcholol and patina inks for the top bof the tin. Here is a close up.