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Thursday 5 April 2012

Paintbrush Can Makeover

Hello there friends. I know, I know. There hasn't been much activity on here recently. That's mainly down to the fact I haven't made very much to be shown. I don't know where the time goes but it's not been in my craft room, that's for sure.

However, the Easter holidays are just around the corner, so I'll hopefully find myself spending some of it playing around with my crafty stash. Meanwhile, the only craft project I have made in the last few days, is this.




My desk is cluttered with art materials at the moment and I'm attempting to tame the mess, little by little.  One of the small steps I've taken, is to create a home for the paintbrushes. And yes, though my style of recent, involves a lot of layers and embellishments, I decided to keep the design a bit cleaner. Especially as the containers started life as packaging for a very popular brand of crisps and all I wanted was to cover it up. I mean, from a practical point of view, the canisters were perfect. But I do have plenty of paint and paper around, so I knew I could just spruce them up without going OTT.

So out came a couple of sheets of patterned 12x12 from Crate Paper which I trimmed to fit and glued around the cylinders. I used a border punch to create a frill for around the top before finishing with a touch of blue & black ribbon. I created the labels on the computer, printed them out and cut out the shapes using Spellbinders dies.

And yes, I thought about creating more of a flourish to them with a selection of shabby embellishments but nothing I arranged around, actually added to the design. I preferred them clean and simple. I mean, they're only for holding brushes and they are much nicer to look at already, than if I had just left them as they were.

Now I just need to find a bit of shelf space to put them on and move onto creating storage for the paints, palettes and journals.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter Break and find plenty of time for creating too.

Pip pip. Px

9 comments:

Kory K said...

I love these! I really love the way 'Brushes' is, on them! So cool!

olive said...

as always Paul, the containers are gorgeous and practical.....see you Saturday. xxxxxx''''''''''''''''''''''

alexa said...

They're lovely and such a great way to use up those crisp tubes - we have a few knocking around too. Your colourway is very elegant, and clean and simple just suits it ...

Jocelyn said...

I love re-purposing containers like this. I've done round hot chocolate cans (that have a heavenly smell of chocolate when the lid is taken off. The Crystal Light drink mix canisters are awesome too. The ones I make usually end up as gift containers. I love the simplicity if your embellishments. You know how some people keep a collection of odd sized and shaped bottles along a shelf? A variety of these containers done in colors to match a decor would be awesome as well.

Frank Garcia said...

These are awesome Paul, so sophisticated and beautiful, truly love them. Hope you are doing well my friend, we miss you at the forums too. Happy Easter!

Hugs! Frank

willireb said...

Love the brush containers. I've been using the large plastic bottles that vitamins/calcium come in. Just cut the top off and use a heat gun to melt the edge if it's jagged. They come in a variety of sizes as well. Happy crafting. WRE

Andrea Ewen said...

Fabulous 'upcycling' and even more fabulous is that you're keeping them for yourself...and you can gaze upon them all the time! Wonderful muted colors work together superbly with that bold font...simply marvelous.
And I must let you know that I should have referred back to your 'cake ball' post when making mine last night, I figured that I could wing it, but after reading again how you did it, mine would have come out much more 'visually pleasing' had a reread your info first. I will book mark that post for future culinary endeavors...if I'm not scared off in the meantime... :) Hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Anne Jagger said...

Well they are gorgeous, and I just love the font you have used. Fabulous. X

Michele said...

Lovely - great idea x