As Promised….

I had made myself a promise that I was going to finish various things I have started recently. One being the trunk I bought last year at a garage sale. I really didn’t like the trunk as it was…..one of my daughters thought it was alright….the other had no real opinion. Me ~ I had specific ideas for that trunk when I bought it ~ it has just taken a while for it to come to fruition. It still isn’t quite complete, but moving along. I wanted to show you before and after…….

Before…..brown with a yucky plastic liner. I ventured to guess this had been stuck away in some one’s garage for a time. So I cleaned it up, ripped out the yucky plastic liner ~ but gently so I could use it for a pattern when I cut a new liner. I primed the trunk and then spray painted it. I removed the little side panels and the old leather handles. I’m decided to paint them white and use a soft, green rope as the handle. The thick rope is similar to what you would use on a hammock. I got several scrap pieces of this fine rope when I visited Nags Head Hammocks years ago and purchased my hammock rocker. Yes ~ a rocker hammock and yes it is so comfy. Another story for another day. 🙂

Here is the after of my trunk. I have yet to put in the new lining (still trying to decide on the fabric), and I have to purchase a new little chain to attach the body and lid together. I have added another coat to the little side panels so I don’t have the handles on yet, but they are ready when I get enough coats of paint on. Once I get it all put together, I will show you the finished trunk.

The other project on my to-do list…..soft cover journals. I wanted to give my college bound niece something personal, something special from me. I thought about what I wanted to do…and this idea kept coming to me ~ a personalized soft cover journal.

The cover was made from fabric which wraps around the paper I had tea stained and deckeled the edges. The signatures are sewn in by hand with linen thread.

I personalized this by adding a photograph from the mini photo shoot I had on the beach with her and her friends this past June. I printed this on canvas, attached the binding tape to the image and secured it to the journal cover with buttons. I created a flap with a button hole and added a button so it could be secured.