Christmas Thrift Flips | Turning Thrifted Finds Into Beautiful Holiday Decor

Hey there! Welcome back to my channel. I'm Rachel, the owner and creator here at The Eclectic Cottage in Spokane, Washington. Happy Friday everyone! I actually managed to get my projects done on time this week, mainly because I kept things relatively simple this go-around, but I had a lot of fun creating the projects that I did finish for you guys. I hope you like them and without further ado let's get to today's video. My first project for today is this little wooden box that I've had in my stash for a while and it's very kind of tired and shabby looking so I am going to be painting it both inside and out. I'm starting on the inside and I'm using DIY's color called weathered wood, which is pretty darn close to the color that it originally was, but also ties into my projects for today. So I'm just going over the entire interior of the box and the rim with a good coat of that beautiful weathered wood color. For the outside of the box I wanted to go with something a little bit lighter that would contrast against that weathered wood color and I knew I was going to be decoupaging the front of the box as well so I went ahead and went over the entire outside of the box with DIY's crinoline. Crinoline is definitely one of my favorite colors, it's this beautiful creamy off-white color that's not quite as stark as plain white but is still really perfect for being underneath the decoupage papers to really help the images stand out. I did end up putting two coats of that crinoline paint on the outside of my little box and once that was completely dry I had to flip it over and clean up the mess that I had made on the rim even though I was trying to be careful, but luckily DIY paint is water-based and so all it took was a damp shop towel and I was able to just clean that crinoline right back off. Then I washed out the inside of the box because I had gotten a few little splatters of paint in there as well and then it was on to my decoupage paper. For my paper I'm going to be using the beautiful new one called Feathered Elegance Christmas by Redesign with Prima. This comes with two different sheets of paper, one of the sheets has both of these beautiful images of birds so I chose these cardinals for the front of my box. The first step is steaming out the wrinkles and once I have that done I just kind of place it over the box to see exactly where my image is going to fit and I did cut a little bit of the paper off just so that I wouldn't have quite so much overhang before beginning the decoupaging process. For my medium I'm using DIY's clear liquid patina and I'm putting a pretty liberal coat over about the first third of the box and once I have that smoothed out I'm going to lay my paper down, make sure it's exactly where I want it placed and then smooth it out over the top of that liquid patina. Once I had that first little bit of paper down I peeled back the rest of it and then continued adding the liquid patina to the rest of the front of the box. Once I had a good even coat of that medium over the rest of the box I laid my paper down over the top, smoothed it out really well to make sure it had good contact with the medium and then I went over the entire thing with another coat of the liquid patina. Once my decoupage paper was completely dry I'm going around the edges with some sandpaper to remove the excess paper. You can see here I'm using kind of a downward sweeping motion and this helps to ensure that you don't accidentally tear your paper. Once I was finished with this step I grabbed some 220 grit sandpaper and went over all of the crinoline areas of my box, not to do any distressing necessarily but mainly to just knock down any brushstroke marks and make sure everything was nice and smooth. Then I wiped everything clean with a damp shop towel and began working on creating some legs for my little box. I've had these little knob looking items in my stash for quite some time. They actually came from an old magazine rack that I had disassembled and I've used these before to create legs for things and I really thought it would be nice to bring some of that weathered wood color to another area of the box and these legs will be perfect. So I am just giving each one of these two good coats of that weathered wood paint which you can see it was a bit of a challenge. And then while I had my weathered wood paint out I went ahead and gave the inside of my box another good coat of it just because I had sanded and some of that dust had landed inside and even though I tried to wipe it clean it just wasn't looking right so I thought a refresher would probably be a good idea. And then once my box was completely dry again it was time to add my little feet. For that I'm just using some tight bond quick and thick and just going in slowly to try to make sure that I have each one spaced evenly. The last step of my little box project is to seal my paint and of course I let my feet set up for a couple hours before doing this but I was still very careful when I was going over the bottom to make sure that I didn't accidentally knock one of my little feet off. So I'm going in with DIY's clear wax for this. I'm adding that with my soft bristle brush again just being really careful not to push off any of my little feet and giving a good even coat to my box. And then I'm of course wiping back any excess wax with a dry shop towel. I love using the DIY clear wax to seal my projects mainly because it gives such a soft matte look to my finished pieces and in this case I'm even going to go over the decoupage paper with the clear wax. I feel like it helps to make the decoupage paper feel softer and it helps to lay the fibers down as well. You can see in the inside of the box I had to break out a little brush to go in the corners. My big one doesn't fit very well but I did go over the entire inside of the box with that clear wax as well. Then all that's left to do is wipe back the rest of the excess wax and my little box project is finished. I love how this came together. It's going to be such a cute addition to my Christmas display and I really hope you guys like it too. For my second project I really wanted to be able to utilize the other piece of the paper that I had cut off so I decided to grab a frame out of my stash to create some art. So I'm starting by giving this poor dusty thing a good bath using some crud cutter to start and then rinsing it off with some clean water before I begin to paint. Now for those of you who have followed me for a while you know that I normally like to keep my Christmas decor relatively neutral, however for this year I decided I really wanted to add more pops of red. So for this frame I am going with a red color. This one is called Carnival Red. It's by DIY. It's a beautiful true red tone and I am going over the entire frame with two good even coats of that paint. Once my paint is completely dry I'm going back in with some 220 grit sandpaper to smooth everything out and also to do some distressing. I really wanted to bring some of that dark tone from underneath this red paint to help to tie in the darker tones in the decoupage paper. Once I was finished sanding I took my frame over to my sink and I just rinsed it off really really well and when I brought it back I made sure to clean up the back of my frame. I didn't want to paint it because it was in really good shape but I did want to make sure that I got any red paint off of it and then I flipped it back over, made sure everything was thoroughly dry and then it was time to seal my frame. For that again I'm going in with a DIY's clear wax which is as you know my favorite sealer and I'm just going over the entire thing again with my soft bristle brush just applying it in a nice thin even layer and then once I'm done I'm very gently wiping it back with a dry shop towel. Once I have this process completed I am grabbing out my DIY dark wax and a tiny little artist brush and I'm taking the dark wax and just putting it into the little creases and crevices in this frame. I'm trying to be careful not to get it everywhere. I didn't really want to give the rest of the frame the patina I just wanted a little bit of shadowing in those little crevices so again just very carefully adding that and then wiping it back with a dry shop towel. Once I was finished adding the dark wax I set my frame aside and went to work on the artwork that would be going in it. As I mentioned I'm going to be using the other half of that piece of paper from the Feathered Elegance Christmas decoupage paper set and the first step here is of course to steam out the wrinkles and once that's done then I'm going to cut my decoupage paper to fit into my frame. I'm using the original piece of art that looks like a piece of cardstock that somebody printed on as a guide and once I have my paper cut out I did go ahead and use some spray adhesive to actually apply it to that piece of cardstock just for some stability and once I have my decoupage paper cut out I'm simply cleaning up the glass and then putting everything back together again. Really happy with how this frame came together and I think it will add such a beautiful little pop of red to one of my Christmas displays. I hope you guys like it as much as I do. I'm here for today guys. I hope you liked my projects and I hope you enjoyed today's video. What did you think of that beautiful decoupage paper? I love it. I think it's so pretty and of course I appreciated the fact that I was able to get two projects with it and still have a whole sheet of paper left over so we'll see if I come up with something to do with that paper later on down the road. Anyway if you did enjoy today's video please remember to give it a thumbs up. I so appreciate that and if you haven't already I would love it if you would subscribe to my channel and then just hit the little notification bell so you don't miss anything and then don't forget to drop a comment below and let me know what you thought of today's project. Just a quick reminder too I do carry a full range of DIY paint and products here in my shop as well as on my website and that is www.theeclecticcottagespokane.com. I carry DIY paint and products as well as sweet pickin' smell paint and products along with some Recycle Treasures decoupage papers and of course some Redesign With Prima. I do have another order of Redesign With Prima coming so hopefully I'll be restocked on a couple of the things that I'm out of however they are completely out of stock at the so I apologize for that. They are supposed to be coming back just a matter of time you guys so just keep watching and I'll let you know if I get those back. Anyway for next Friday's video same thing I'm planning on being in my kitchen and working on some more projects. Not really sure which direction I'm going to be going yet but I hope you can join me back here for that. Until then I hope you guys have a fantastic week and thank you guys so much for being here. I appreciate it and I'll see you back here on Friday. Bye!