The Super Fantastic & Never-Ending Arts & Crafts Thread!

[Elladorine]

I know we’ve had places to post Disney-related fan art, but I thought it might be fun to have a general arts & crafts thread. And we all love Disney of course (otherwise why are we here?), but I believe creating pieces all our own is a special craft that somehow ties together and reflects why we love the art, music, stories, entertainment, etc. from this company, no matter our age, race, gender, ability, culture, etc.

And it doesn’t matter what level we’re at! I’ve got Little Dude started early ...



Forky was obviously made from a kit (a gift from one of his aunts), but LD is quite proud he was able to make this all by himself! Will he continue to take after his mommy and enjoy creating? Only time will tell! (I’m choosing to edit his face in all public forums now that he’s getting older.)

As for something I’ve recently created, here is a thrift store jewelry box that I upcycled for my niece’s baby.



As you can see, it originally had a generic ballerina theme, but I sanded it down, did some repairing, wood fill, and painting. I then digitally drew a baby Ariel and created some patterns, printed them out, and decoupaged them on. So with some clear coat, sparkly new drawer pulls, and new velvet lining for the inside, I’m hoping it’s a gift the baby will enjoy all throughout her childhood.

Have you created anything lately? It doesn’t even have to be Disney-related, this is the “off-topic” section after all! Anyway, I hope this can be a fun, light-hearted thread full of diverse creativity, inspiration, and maybe even some tips!

[blackcauldron85]

Awww, I love that making Forky was special for your son!!! What a fun project! That's an AMAZING jewelry box!! I've always loved your art style, and that is an adorable box!!!!!!

I am not a crafty person. I would love to be, but am not. Do you just have the knowledge inately or you use online tutorials or something? I'm still haunted my 7th and 8th grade wood shop and sewing in home ec...

[Elladorine]

Thanks!!!

I’d wanted to try decoupage (basically a method of gluing paper to things) for ages, and I finally decided to try it with a Halloween-themed jewelry box a while back. I used spooky cardstock and a small, plain wooden chest, both from Michaels. I looked through a few tutorials and gave it a shot:



I added the lettering and some of the detail on top by hand, but everything else was from the printed cardstock. And after seeing how it turned out, I realized that I could try using my own artwork instead of pre-existing patterns, which seemed like a lot more fun! I also thought it would be fun to add metal feet and different types of handles.

Here’s the Stitch box I mentioned in the other thread:



I’d found it completely plain at the thrift store, and the inside was lined in pink velvet. And since the music box plays an Elvis song, I figured Stitch would be perfect! I drew everything to scale on my laptop, printed it all out, and used Mod Podge to attach and seal it (with several other steps). The hard part is making it feel like the artwork is an integral part of the piece, rather than just some paper that has been slapped on! The trim was painted with acrylic, the entire piece has been sealed with clear coat, and new handles were added. You can’t see it here, but it’s it’s also newly lined with a royal blue velvet.

Here’s another project I did a while back, a vintage wooden purse I also thrifted. But instead of decoupage, this time I created an image transfer since I wanted the wood from underneath to show through.



It didn’t quite turn out the way I was hoping, as doing these transfers is a much more difficult technique to get down than the decoupage. I learned a lot on it though!

You can always try doing decoupage yourself! You can start with small, simple pieces and use any kind of pretty paper you find. Both Michaels and Hobby Lobby carry a lot of plain wooden boxes for decorating, and you can also find a lot of pretty cardstock available. You don’t have to have any knowledge of wood shop (whew!), you just need to be able to trim the paper down to the right size, brush the glue on the wood, smooth the paper into place, then brush more glue over it. If you’re ever interested in trying, you can easily find tutorials on craft blogs or videos through YouTube. It’s really fun to make little custom pieces to store trinkets and such in! I’ve also decorated a larger metal cabinet that I’ll have to post later.

[blackcauldron85]

I love love love that Stitch box!!!!!!! And the Halloween box is perfect- I love the colors and cat feet!! (Hocus Pocus vibes) What weren't you thrilled with on the Snow White purse? I didn't even know wooden purses were a thing, and it's a super unique piece (and she looks beautiful). Do you use a paper cutter when cutting for decoupage? Do you use a Popsicle stick or another tool to smooth the paper? (Or I could watch a tutorial )

[Elladorine]

It’s not a big deal about the Snow White box, I just thought the wood grain would show through better in the blank areas surrounding the print. Instead, it sort of looked like a flat white, so then I went over some of it with colored pencils before sealing it. But thanks! Wooden purses were a midcentury thing, and I’m guessing this one is from the 1950s. It was a really fun project to upcycle; maybe someone will find it fun to carry around in Disneyland or something someday!

I do love spooky Halloween decor, and come to think of it, yes … a Hocus Pocus vibe! My bedroom/corner office is a weird mix of Disney and witchy themes, but it makes it extra fun to work in, lol.

As for smoothing out the decoupaging, Mod Podge sells special for tools for that, including a brayer that you press and roll over the paper. What works best for me though is using an old credit card! Here’s a site that goes over the basics if you’re looking to experiment! https://modpodgerocksblog.com/the-7-ste ... very-time/

Here is my biggest decoupage project so far, a metal cabinet a little over 2 feet tall that I bought at Goodwill for $7. As you can see, it was in pretty ugly shape to begin with, lol. Turns out it’s an outdated version of the Helmer from IKEA. Anyway, I painted the base with a metallic, textured brown and printed out a 90s-style celestial pattern I drew a while back. Decoupaged the printed sheets onto the drawers, layered textured clear coat over it, and painted the old handles since I couldn’t find any new ones the right size (I can easily fill in holes on wood to start over, but with metal, not so much, lol).



I’m hanging on to this one, lol! Each drawer is large enough to hold standard printer paper so it’s great for organizing.

Here’s another jewelry box I’ve done, made from a mini-chest from a craft store.



Here’s a closer look; I stained the framework of the box since I thought the wood grain was pretty, removed the original handles, filled in the holes left behind, and decoupaged the fronts of the drawers. The insides of the drawers were painted this time, and I gave it solid new handies.



Really had fun with this; it’s probably one of my favorites! I’ve actually had to make it a second time, lol.

[blackcauldron85]

I am LOVING the B&tB box---- it's AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm in awe of the transformation of the cabinet--- it looks so good!!!! Thank you so much for the link- that's a really good tutorial!

[Elladorine]

Thank you so much!!! It’s the first time I tried staining something in addition to the decoupage and paint. One of the best things about working with craft store pieces like this is that there is minimal prep work, so you can spend most of your time having fun with the planning and decorating. For this one I had to rework the art quite a bit, to ensure nothing important got cropped off the edges or covered up by the drawer pulls!

Here’s another old jewelry box I found in a thrift store. I could see it needed a lot of work, but I fell in love with the shape; the sloped top made it feel like a old-fashioned tabletop desk in miniature form!



And since I’m guessing it was probably made in the 1970s, I thought Robin Hood might be a perfect theme. So I got to work on creating a digital drawing for it.



I felt the wood grain was pretty enough to preserve, so I decided to try making an image transfer this time. Mod Podge to the rescue again! After completing the drawing, I printed out a mirrored version on regular printer paper. I mixed a little white paint in with the Mod Podge, and painted directly over the printed areas.



I let that dry, added another coat of plain Mod Podge (which is transparent when it dries), and placed it face-down on the wood. I then had to flatten it out as gently as possible, avoiding bubbles and wrinkles. After leaving it to dry overnight, it was time to carefully remove the paper, which leaves the toner embedded in the Mod Podge on the surface of the wood. I did this by dampening the paper and rubbing the fibers off with my fingers.



This part is a little time-consuming, lol. But I’m pretty happy with the result! I darkened the wood around the edges with some colored pencils before sealing.



So this is an idea of how it’ll look overall. From this point I still had to remove the velvet lining, which was in really bad shape and left behind a lot of glue that also needed to be removed. From here I had to strip off the old varnish, do some small repairs, and sand. But it the meantime, I had a fun idea …



Yep, I grabbed a knife and literally carved their initials inside the top! And when I showed this to one of my friends, she fell in love with it and asked if she could buy it as an anniversary gift for her wife: Robin Hood is her favorite Disney movie! So I still need to treat and finish the inside and outside of the box; tonight Rey and I took it apart so we could sand the insides of the compartment and the drawer, as she’d like it all to be wood instead of re-lined with new fabric as I’d typically do.

The top is completely done, but here’s the current state of the box itself:



It’s back to the unfinished wood, so tomorrow I’ll be oiling and re-staining. I’m anxious to get this one done!

[blackcauldron85]

I'm amazed yet again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's perfect (especially with the carving!)!!! (and the jewelry box reminds me of an old-school school desk, too!) So after you lay the paper down and leave it overnight, when you remove the paper, it leaves behind the fibers?

I think you're super creative, and you even take into consideration the era the product is made to decide what characters to add to it.

[Elladorine]

Thanks! I know it can be a little confusing, but the printer toner (the image) gets embedded in the Mod Podge. When you wet the paper, the paper softens and gets broken down into the fibers, and that’s the part you rub away and remove. Here, I’ll show you another example:



In the upper left corner, the paper had already dried to the wood, and you can see where I’ve added the water which is starting to make the paper transparent. In the lower left corner, you can see I’ve started rubbing the fibers of the paper off into little crumbly pieces, but the toner remains embedded in the Mod Podge, which remains stuck to the wood. So when you do regular Mod Podge, you permanently adhere the paper to the project. With a transfer, you want the effect of printing directly on the object, in this case a wooden board, without seeing any paper.

And of course the final product is in the large photo, which Kylo seems to be enjoying, lol! I wanted the wood grain to show up through the artwork, so I used plain Mod Podge. I wanted the Robin Hood art to be opaque, which is why I added a little white paint.

Here’s a box I did a while back with regular Mod Podge. This is how it looked before I started:



I got some flack for “ruining” a Charmmy Kitty box, but as you can see it was already in bad shape, and I figure anything discarded at a thrift store is fair game. The little window was a cheap piece of plastic that had cracked, so it wasn’t salvageable at all, and since it would need to be replaced anyway, I looked at it and realized it was kind of tombstone-shaped … so how about Nightmare Before Christmas? I really liked the shape of the top as well, and felt that part could feature a fun landscape of the spiral hill. So after removing the windows and hardware, I repaired the holes and damaged sections before painting all the edges purple. I measured all the flat areas I wanted to decoupage, and drew up the background to fit the shape along with some patterns for the sides and drawers. We have a laser at home, so I also drew up some line art of Jack and Sally, and Rey used it to cut and engrave the drawing into a sheet of acrylic to make a new window. And of course, I had to completely clean out and re-line the drawers with all new velvet. We returned the original hinges and found new mismatched pulls for the drawers and door. Here’s a few pics of how it turned out!









And thanks again! I really try to let a piece “speak” to me when I decide on a theme, keeping in mind the age, overall size/shape, and whether it should be stripped or repainted.

I’ll have to post more soon!

[blackcauldron85]

You're the best- thanks for sharing those pictures! Mod Podge is some magic stuff...I don't 100% understand how it works, but it's magic! And the jewelry box looks way better as TNBC- it's a beautiful piece!

[Elladorine]

Thank you so much!!! I still have to stop and think hard when it comes to making transfers, it quickly gets confusing even when you’ve done it a few times, lol.

Here’s another decoupaged piece I’m planning to add to my Etsy soon. I thrifted this Christmas countdown chalkboard and thought it would be fun to give it a makeover!



The drawing was initially made for a large jewelry box, but it’s been handy for projects like this too! Because of the height, I had to print two different parts on separate pieces of paper; the hard part here is hiding the seams.



It’s designed to be hung on the wall, and I’m happy I was able to retain the original screen-printed chalkboard as a part of it. And the bottom even has a ledge to hold a piece of chalk!

[blackcauldron85]

That is SO COOL!!!!!! You are so creative.

[Elladorine]

Thanks! I feel like I took a risk with having it be a Christmas countdown instead of Halloween. We’ll see how it goes though, lol!

Oh, I just completely finished the Robin Hood box and wanted to post the final piece, since the wood is a bit brighter now that I’ve stripped and waxed it.



I ended up not having to stain it, as just oiling it brought out a gorgeous color! I simply let the oil soak in for a few days before finishing it with the wax. You can’t tell here, but I also had to give the top a final sanding to smooth it out better, and some matte clear coat since I’m not sure if the wax would seal over any previous clear-coat properly.



Here is a better look of the inside, which required the most work since it was so rough and splintery.



And one more photo, just because Kylo is so gosh darned cute in it!



I’m making sure the top has a few more days to cure before I wrap it up and ship it off to my friend. I hope they really enjoy it!!!

[blackcauldron85]

Aww, hi Kylo! Such a beautiful box- much nicer than Disney merchandise available out there these days. You have a gift! And the beauty of TNBC is that it works for both holidays!

[Rose Dome]

What gorgeous craft and what a gorgeous Cat!

[Elladorine]

Amy, Rose Dome, thank you very much, so happy that you’re enjoying!!! I try to create things that I would like to be able to own myself. I do wish they targeted more serious adult collectors like they did years back. Anyway, since I don’t have that much room, this is the next best thing! Lol.

And as for Kylo? He knows he’s very handsome, lol!

On a side note, not sure if I’ve mentioned this or not in this forum before, but I did find an officially licensed Disney shirt once that had stolen my work! I had drawn my own version of the Junior Woodchucks logo, which was literally copied and pasted into the background of a specific design available at Box Lunch. Crazy world we live in, right? It was easy to spot because my version is not the same as any official version.

Anyway, lately I’ve been into creating Happy Planner-style planners and notebooks for my own personal use. Their binding system uses discs so you can just snap in the covers and pages in any order you like; they’re held securely in place until you want to change things around. It’s not only great for planning, but for journaling and goal lists and such. Here is a mini planner I’ve made:



I printed out my artwork to size on my home printer in order to make the front cover, and the inside has the mirrored image. I had it laminated at Office Depot since my laminator can only go up to 5mil and I wanted to use 10mil. I’m so happy with how bright the colors printed out! Once I got it home I used a mushroom-style punch to give it the holes for the discs.



Here you can see the inside of the cover as well as the cover page (and yes, I blurred out my personal info here, lol).



These are the weekly pages I’ve designed, one panel for each day plus an extra for random notes.



And this is what the calendar pages look like. I can add the proper name and numbers of each month by hand and write additional notes in the extra spaces.



I also laminate bookmarks that can be snapped in!



Since I want to be able to throw this book into my purse when I’m on the go, I decided it needed a protective cover so the pages won’t get bent up. I made this translucent one out of a single sheet of plastic, folded in half to punch, then a couple more folds to give it a front and back. An elastic cord was threaded through one of the discs so the cover can stay securely closed.



You can see details of the spine and discs a little better here.



Oh, and here’s the back! Like the front, the inside of the cover has the mirror image. Oh, and if you noticed any discrepancies with the rings and scale, I’ve switched out the rings a few times and have also made a larger book to use as a journal. Had lots of fun with this! The hard part was figuring out a case that could easily wrap around the entire book while being able to attach it to the discs.

[blackcauldron85]

I don't know if you ever saw it, but years ago I messaged you here because Hot Topic had a shirt similar to your Leaning Tower of Cheeza shirt (I've had mine for years from RedBubble), so while it makes me mad, I'm not surprised that another design of yours was stolen. It sucks that Disney copies artwork like that.

I dont fully understand the Happy Planner system, but your art is beautiful. So much line work on the stained glass pictures and I love the colors!

[Rose Dome]

Splendid planner

Too bad you’ve had work stolen

[blackcauldron85]

Hey Elladorine, someone on Etsy stole your Gurgi design:

Andrew Cockburn
Owner of FunkyMonkeyGiftCo

https://www.etsy.com/listing/570197876/ ... gs-mug-the

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1090308092 ... lised-free