TEA BOX FOR LONDON UNDERGROUND LOVERS

Here's a personalised gift for a very special friend of mine. I believe this is my best work so far which took a while to complete.

I coated the wooden box with olive wood tint and distressed it with white paste. Then transferred vintage London underground images onto the lid and front side of the box. After a couple of  coats of  satin varnish I used a stencil and iron paste to create some 3d reliefs on the lid and then polished them with sandpaper.

Finally I doodled a heart and pressed a happy birthday stamp inside the lid to mark the occassion.

MORE HEARTS...

This tasteful heart somehow didn't find its owner. I hope it'll make a successful Mr Hubby's studio decor. 

Since we both like pin-up styles I've made this playful polka-dot heart. I quite like the way it came out.

And the last heart was my first work using rice paper. I'm not sure I enjoyed that material, it refused to blend with the background and stood out very noticeably. I also feel something's missing in the design, but I didn't want to overdo. But when I look at the picture now I'm surprised at how good it looks.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

I've been so busy making my DYI Valentine's Day decorations that I've completely forgotten to post them. I don't personally like the motif of hearts and the cheap mawkish romantic atmosphere of the day itself so I treated the holiday as a pretext to practice my skills and create something somewhat different. 

So for the next couple of days I'll be presenting my newest works and quite ironically I'm starting the show with an anti-valentine.

I found the image on Moi Sanom's facebook page and I simply couldn't resist the urge... 

My anti-valentine is very simple to make, but strikingly beautiful to my eye. I'm really pleased with myself, I must admit.