Something old…….. Something new !

Hello dear readers from around the world!

Today, I will show you how you can give a new and ‘glamorous’ life to an old and neglected object which is just a step before being thrown into to the recycling bin. I suppose we all have quite a few items in our kitchen which, though useful and practical they might be ,they have long lost their ‘attractive younger age’ appearance and we often think of replacing them with more modern and ‘happy’ looking ones.

Before you discard them though, think twice! You can probably be able to transform them and use them in a different but ‘interesting’ way. That’s what I did with my old and not so good looking heat pad.

 So here we are! This is a picture of the pad before its transformation, old, with faded colours and tired. I had often thought of either recycling it, or putting it inside a drawer to rest forever, but, something in it made me want to see it around for a bit longer. I suppose, it is its shape , the shape of a tea pot and I can honestly tell you that I love tea pots!

Last weekend then, the moment came for this humble heat pad, to be reborn as a decorative item for a shelf in my kitchen and forget its previous life forever!

The transformation :

STEP 1: I used some sand paper to gently rub its surface and then I painted it with some acrylic paint. I used white colour and mixed it with some ochre. I used almost two coats of paint to cover the patterns on its plastic surface.

STEP 2: When the colour dried, I added a third coat of paint, in a colour between turquoise and light blue. When  it dried,

STEP 3: I waxed the whole surface using a white candle.

STEP 4: I added another coat of light beige colour on the pad. When it was dry,

STEP 5: I very gently rubbed the surface using the sand paper. This way, the light blue colour underneath the beige one, appeared, giving the surface an old and weathered look.

This technique gives a vintage appearance to painted objects and makes them more ‘appealing’.

STEP 6: I used my beloved decoupage technique to decorate the pad. I chose patterns from five different paper napkins. I have previously described the technique in my blog and I can assure you it is quite easy to use. The most important aspect is to choose the ‘right’ patterns and place them in such a way that accentuate the shape of the item you want to decorate.

STEP 7: I applied two coats of varnish to give my pad a better look and make it water resistant, too.

STEP 8: I happily and ‘proudly’ placed it on a kitchen shelf to start its new, life ,as a decorative item this time!

I hope you like this idea and you give it a try with something similar that you have at home and needs your love and attention !

Good bye for now dear readers  and  thank you for reading!

Enjoy the week ! 

Till next time,

Tina xxx