Ahoi! - by Claudia

Ahoi, servus and welcome to a little project today that was inspired by the actual maritime themed home decoration trend. Litterally everywhere you look you can find cast or wood carved seahorses, gorgeous boat candles or decorative little boats made from driftwood or sheet metal to put on your dinner table or sideboard, shells of all kinds (fake ones and real ones),  paper napkins with countless variations of maritime prints on them,  shelves in the shape of a boat, painted oars to hang on your walls, thick rope door stoppers,....the list could go on for ages to be honest ;)

And I love it all! (I guess I am not the only one though).
So I am very proud to tell that I have managed to only buy a ship shaped candle and a white washed treasure chest so far ;)

But of course I could not resist ordering some maritime themed Calico Craft Parts (from their incredible huge collection of maritime themed craft parts) to create one or the other nautical or ocean themed project myself. It's a little storage box that can only hold very small or lightweight items (due to the special "feet" I have given it)...maybe business cards or cotton pads...I am not sure yet.

Calico Craft Parts used: 

- MDF Cube Storage Box Kit - large

- 2 Sets of 2 Spiral Seashell MDF Wood Shapes - small

- Anchor & Banner MDF Wood Shape - small

- Compass MDF Wood Shape - small 

As you may already have noticed I have only used the inner box of the Cube Storage Box Kit (and kept the outer box for a later project...maybe an Artist Trading Cube) ...

(both boxes from the kit - inner and outer one - during assembly being set aside to dry)

...and have turned it around so the cut out finger pull opening is at the back. Luckily the small Compass wood shape fit just perfectly and the effect looked even cooler than I had planned! 

I really fell in love with this specific compass wood shape as I love the little engraved details and the hand carved design!

The gorgeous Anchor & Banner wood shape was a perfect focal element to put on the box front.

The boxes were assembled using DecoArt matte Decou-Page - my favourite go-to glue as it dries really quickly and has the perfect consistency to glue MDF or attach heavier embellishments to projects.

This is how the storage box cube kit originally looks like (and is meant to be used ;). I have already used one of these (using the whole kit) to create this storage over HERE.


 I painted the inside of the box with DecoArt "escape" and the outside with "refreshing" Chalky Finish paints.  The other craft parts were primed by dry brushing on a thin layer of "timeless" Chalky Finish paint.

I added washes of DecoArt media "Burnt Umber" fluid acrylic paint to the shells for some shading before I glued these into place (using matte Decou-Page again).

The thin stripes around the box were hand painted using a detail brush and Titan Buff media fluid acrylic paint. I used the large Chalky Finish paint container to support my hand while I painted the stripes.

The compass rose was painted by hand using "Navy Blue" and "Light Buttermilk"  DecoArt Americana acrylic paint and "Primary Magenta" media fluid acrylic paint.

The anchor with the banner was painted using Titan Buff, Paynes Grey and diluted Burnt Umber media fluid acrylic paints (remember: the parts had all been given a thin dry brushed layer of "timeless" Chalky Finish paint).

I added the back shell "feet" in a ninety degrees angle compared to the front feet, so they all could be well seen from the side too.

To reinforce the feet I think I will add some DecoArt Liquid Glass to the shells' backsides....or maybe order four more and glue them on top and paint these again....this should make the shell "feet" more durable I think ;)

But for now the box looks like this:

I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx