Michaela was out op-shopping for a wishing well when she came across a wooden box covered in dingy, wrinkled paper with a lockable, hinged lid at the op shop. She could see its potential but had no idea what she was going to do with it, thinking we would just figure out the details later.
The interior is in good condition and it's already lined with a black fabric so it doesn't need any work. But the outside is a different story. It was tired..... really, really tired-looking and I wish I had photos to show you just how sad it looked. And even though we didn't know what we were going to do with the box, we knew that the wrinkled paper and the pitted steel hardware fittings had to go. So that was the first step: remove the paper and hardware and sand it all over before giving the box a couple of coats of white paint.
It's a massive improvement but the box still seems, well..... "boxy"!
We put our heads together and decide that it needs feet so it's off to the hardware store to find something suitable and also to find some new brass fittings to replace the silver ones. The fittings were easy but the best we could do for the feet were some wooden drawer knobs.
After undercoating them, we painted them gold and glued them on.
Now to the decorating. We found some glittery, gold open weave fabric that we both liked so we bought a 20cm wide strip which cost just a couple of dollars. Neither of us had a clue as to what we were going to do with it but it was glittery, and it was pretty, and it was gold - and yes, we are both easily distracted by pretty things!
But this is as far as the project got. It sat on hold for more than two weeks because we just couldn't decide what to do next and there were many other projects that needed our attention.
Now, fast forward to the eve of the wedding......
It's 11:30pm and the wishing well is still just a painted white box with gold feet. At least the new brass hinges and latch have been fitted. But it is not the wishing well of her dreams and time has run out.... the bride needs to go to bed to get her beauty sleep.
And so the task has fallen to me - I have to complete it with whatever I have on hand in the studio. Whilst rummaging through my button collection, I found a large gold shank button with a white plastic pearl in the centre. I gathered the strip of gold mesh fabric in the centre and wrapped the button around the centre with wire.
Then I wrapped the fabric around the sides of the box and literally just tied it in a knot at the back. Surprisingly, that knot actually looked good! Some strategically placed double-sided tape held the fabric in place.
But the box still needed something so I kept searching through my supplies and finally I found a gold tassel to drape from the lock. That was an improvement but it was still missing something. It needed some bling to lift it but clear crystals just didn't fit the look. Then I remembered that earlier in the week at the bridal shower, one of the prizes was a packet of smokey gold rhinestone scrapbook borders. My Mum had won these and she kindly donated them back so I could complete the wishing well.
There were only two strips in the packet but they were the exact fit for the front of the box so one went across the lid and the other across the bottom edge of the box. Perfect! It would have been nice to do the same on the other three sides of the box but by now it was 12:30am and time for the MOB to get some beauty sleep.
In the end, the wishing well came together quite quickly, and it worked well with all the other personalised touches the creative bride had put together. But finishing it in the early hours of the wedding day was definitely cutting it a bit fine.
I hope you'll keep checking back for more of our crafty adventures as we prepared for her wedding. The Creative Bride has many more projects to share.
'Til next time.....
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