Stenciled Glass Vase

This plain, but pretty olive green vase is made over to a down to earth natural look with a stencil and some brown paint.

I chose to use this stencil designed by Dina Wakley for The Crafter's Workshop. With my natural elements in mind, the striped leaves are a great design for this vase. 

I wrapped the stencil around the vase vertically and taped it off to hold it for painting. 

Then I sponge painted through the stencil with a water based translucent brown colored paint. 

After it dried, I grabbed some sisal, some glass and plastic beads and coconut shells to add to it. 

To make holes in the coconut shell pieces, I used a drill. 

I wrapped the sisal around the neck of the vase and tied it off with some extra hanging to add some of the beads. 

Once the beads were on, tying off finished the look. 

What would you do with this stencil? 
So many options! 

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Recycled Shoe Box into Stencil Designed Storage

Shoe boxes are great for storage. They are small and stackable; my favorite way to organize clutter. But they aren't always pretty. So I decided to decorate some by recycling them into craft storage. When decorated, you can display them on an open shelf. 

I started with this flip lid shoe box. Perfect for some of my crafting scraps, I wanted a happy design and soothing colors. 


So I spray painted the box in this bright turquoise color. 

Then chose to use this stencil designed by Dina Wakley for The Crafter's Workshop. With my color palette in mind, the striped leaves are a great design. 

I taped the stencil to the lid of the box vertically. Using just four repeating lines of the design, I painted white, bright green, brown and white. 

Then I randomly designed the front of the box with colors and leaf direction.

After the paint dried, and I thought the box needed a bit more. Something more like a label. I intended this one to be for craft scraps labeled "Junk & Scraps".  So I used this favorite stencil. Because I wanted the leaves in front, I painted in between the leaf lines. (Next time, I'll reverse the stencil use.) 

Here is my first decorated box to get started with organizing!

  

How do you recycle or decorate your shoe boxes? 

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