A Box for Paper – An Image Transfer Experiment

This time of year always makes me want to make things, to sew, to clean, to redecorate. Spring does it, too. It’s just the change in the weather. I’m sure you’re the same whether you realize it or not. I look at your blogs, see the pretty things you’re doing, look at Pinterest, at magazines, and think, “I WANT TO DO THAT, TOO!” And yes, the words are shouting in my head. I see so many things I want to do and even think of things on my own, I spin around in circles not knowing where to start. So I don’t. I just continue in the endless circle spin. Kinda like a kid at a carnival. I wanna do this! No! Let’s do this! Oh, look at that! Sigh. Yep. That’s me. But I did force myself to start an “easy”, less than an afternoon, project today. More on that another day. It’s turning out not so easy and will probably take more than an afternoon for me to complete it. And I’ve already got a wicked, pliers finger pinch.

But I did want to prove to the world yet again that I am capable of completing a project even when there were several do-overs.

I did a Graphic Fairy transfer onto this wooden box.

It’s a bit bigger than a standard sheet of paper, so perfect to hold a stack of printer paper inside. Naturally I didn’t get any before pictures. Why would I think to do that?? But it was a crappy, hand made box. Had a crooked, brass latch on the front and a broken, plastic money holder tray inside. It was varnished, natural colored wood. I sanded that baby down. All by myself! 😉

First step, of course, was painting. I gave it probably 3 coats before transferring the graphic.

I thought that I’d try the Mod Podge method that Jennifer of Town and Country Living told us about. I even unconsciously sorta copied her box. My results were far from stellar. Some of it didn’t take and I ended up peeling into the lettering when I was “rolling” the paper off. And in the end, the tell tale edge of the Mod Podge was very visible. Not the effect I was looking for. I wanted it to look printed on, not applied. So I rubbed it all off, did some light sanding and repainted the top.

This time I tried the wax paper method. I’ve used this method before, but it was too light for the effect I wanted on the box. I did a bit of sanding then more paint. And more paint and more…

Finally I tried the freezer paper method. And used the high intensity setting on the printer. This one worked great. But… um… the graphic was too small. Arghhhhh! So I painted and painted and painted and painted. Three or four coats on the top to cover. I enlarged the graphic as much as I could, reapplied and let it be.

I found some black and white contact paper at Dollar General to line the inside with.

Put the little clear knob on and the hinges back on (after intentionally sloppy painting) and that was that. It only took 1-1/2 months! Woohoo! LOL

So I want to know. Do you flit around like a butterfly wanting to start things, but not knowing where to start or which project to do first? Are you a quick finisher? Do you start it and get it done? Does this time of year make you want to do more than you can possibly get around to?