We are finally having some summer weather, woot! Here in Washington State, it's been up in the 90s the last couple of days! In fact, at 7:30pm it's still 92 degrees! I hope it's been beautiful where you live too.
I love this time of year when the sunshine is shining and the evenings are warm. I love it so much that it's what inspired this thrift shop flip project!
Repurposed Rattan Baskets Sun & Moon Paintings
Do you have some thrifted baskets and don't know what to do with them? Don't miss this idea for repurposing baskets into beautiful artwork!
Baskets are plentiful at the thrift store and perfect for repurposing. These baskets have a flat, wood area in the center that lends itself perfectly to painting and the sides remind me of rays of sunshine 🌞
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Supplies Needed to Make Your Own:
The baskets needed a little bit of repair but nothing some glue and clamps couldn't fix.
I started by painting the baskets. One with yellow and one with black spray paint.
Once the spray paint had dried, I used Butter Yellow to paint over the center section of the yellow basket to create the sun.
And then Cloudless to create the moon.
After that, I transferred the face details from my pattern with transfer paper.
I mixed up Adobe Red, Butter Yellow, and Fuschia to create a color for shading the sun.
To add shading, you need an angled brush and you'll load it with paint so there is more paint at the tip and less toward the other side.
And then go around the edges with the side-loaded, angled brush.
I added some highlights with yellow a shade or two lighter and an old, scruffy brush. I dipped it in the paint and then wiped most of the paint off on a paper towel so it was almost dry.
Just scrub it onto the cheeks, forehead, eyes, etc.
I painted the lips pink and then used the same shading and highlighting technique on the moon but with white paint.
Then I began tracing around the edges and facial features with a very tiny detail brush and black paint.
The tracing technique on these is very forgiving. You don't have to have any straight lines at all!
The secret to nice black lines is making sure your brush is NOT dry for this. Dip it in water and then just barely dab it off. This will create fluid lines.
You could do all the linework with a black Sharpie pen to make it even easier too!
I printed out, "Live by the Sun, Love by the Moon," in a font I liked for the black basket and transferred the words onto the basket with white transfer paper.
I added the same stars as I did on the sun and then I splattered the whole thing with white paint (tip: use an old toothbrush dipped in water and then paint for splattering).
I taped off the sun and moon so that I could spray some orange over the yellow. I tried to add orange highlights with the same color I used for the shading on the sun but it didn't turn out so I just sprayed over it with orange (tip: hold the orange spray paint way up high so that some of the yellow paint still shows).
I finished these off with a coat of clear spray sealer and a sawtooth hanger on the back of each.
PIN ME!
I hope this gives you some ideas, baskets can be used for so much more than holding things, and they are a dime a dozen at the thrift store!
When you are looking at a thrift store find, if it reminds you of something (like these reminded me of sunshine) try to find a way to transform it into whatever your imagination suggests!
This marks four down in this thrift shop flip lineup!
Up next is the tablecloth!
P.S. You may also like these ideas for repurposing thrifted baskets!
Love these!! Your sun and moon are gorgeous! Great job and a very creative way to upcycle these baskets.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's been so long since I've done any "tole" painting that I almost forgot how!! lol
DeleteWhat a great idea for upcycling these rattan baskets! You have an artistic eye for detail too judging by the adorable hand painted faces on the sun and moon. Pinned :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Marie :)
DeleteGreat eye for seeing "sunshine" when you found your baskets so you could make these amazing art pieces! Thanks for the black line painting tip.
ReplyDeleteThanks Allyson! :o)
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