Saturday, April 24, 2010

Altered Key Cabinet

The other day, my friend Carol and I got together to have a play day and decided we would alter some key cabinets. We each had one from a well-known high street store with initials in its name, which I find is a good source of small mdf items to alter. In the past I've had mini chests of drawers, tool caddies and a key rack. (OK, it's T K Maxx)

Anyway, they both originally had rather lurid pictures of roses on them. For some reason I NEVER like images of roses. I love the flowers themselves, and I like other flower pictures, but I never ever like rose pictures, not even photographs. I forgot to photograph the cabinets before we started, but here is the front of another piece waiting to be altered, with the same dreadful rose on it:



Carol and I chose quite different approaches - she is a very tidy and classic designer, I tend more towards slap it on and see where it goes, and it ends up more grungy. I started by taking the door and the door knob off to give myself a blank canvas, then I cut a piece of corrugated board to fit. I distressed the board with a bit of brown emulsion paint and some gold acrylic paint, very roughly dry-brushed on, then I embossed the edges with some Cosmic Shimmer EP in a greeny-black colour. I stuck this on with PVA. I took 3 tags and decorated them, firstly by inking the edges and then stencilling with some of the new DI's then I stamped with my new Tim Holtz set "Purely Random" which has a gorgeous elephant among other things! I embossed the edges very roughly with more cosmic shimmer and an unknown EP that my friend Sue was chucking out before moving house. I then added some short ribbons and stuck them on, allowing for the door knob to go back! I had some new Marianne dies that I bought from Paddy's Stamping Place so I pinched a bit of K&Co paper that Carol had with her and chopped out some leaves and flowers with my trusty Cuttlebug, distressed them then stuck them on with Pinflair glue. (that stuff is brilliant!)

Carol painted hers a lovely dark red with some emulsion paint then stencilled swirls over it with Crushed Sapphire DI. She made a lovely 2 dimensional butterfly and added some gems to it and stuck that on the front. Hers is what I would call sophisticated and elegant! Quite a contrast to mine which I can only describe as "rustic" ! Forgot to take a pic of Carol's, sorry - if I get one I'll post it another time!
Here's mine anyway:

7 comments:

Hearts Turned said...

So rich and beautiful, Chris! I really love what everything you did for this wonderful creation!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

craftimamma said...

This is great Chris. I love it! I'm not a planner when I do things like this. I usually just have one item I want to start with and I go with the flow from that point, Lol!

Like you I am a lover of TKMaxx and have loads of bits and bobs (usually involving little drawers, Lol) waiting to be altered or finished. I'd already decided before I saw your post that I could feel a TKMaxx visit coming on for tomorrow, Lol!

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Nigel said...

I like this, very much :)

I wonder where the nearest TK Maxx is?

Janet said...

This is absolutely fab. You are a crafter after my own heart. (i.e. a compass with no north) Brilliant job. Take it back to TK's and show them what a key cabinet should look like!

Janet xx

Heavens2Betsy said...

Wow! This is a marvellous creation. I just happened by your blog and love what you are doing here. Stunning.

wendy kirk said...

It's gorgeous Chris, love elephants as well. I think you did a fab job on it.

Sarah A said...

Hi Chris

I just stumbled across your blog while searching for stamping shops/clubs in the North West (live in Bolton work in Salford).

Wow this is amazing, looks like a totally different piece than it started off as ;-)

Will probably send you an email to pick your brains about Paddys Place location - hope thats ok?

Sarah x



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