Repurposed Metal Dustpan

27 July

I've had an old rusty metal dustpan in my craft stash for a while now, I picked it up at a garage sale last year.

I didn't have a plan for it when I got it, I just knew that I'd seen cute things done with them and thought I could come up with something too.

Then along comes our next Do-It-Over-Designer's challenge and this month we have a theme, metal! Perfect time to finally do something with that dustpan.

If you are new to this challenge, I'll share my project with you and then there will be links to the other ladies' projects.

I don't know what made my mind go to chickens, but it did! I know that chickens like to take dust baths so it didn't seem like much of a stretch to paint some chickens kicking up a bunch of dust on the dustpan. 😃

Repurposed Metal Dustpan

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These are the supplies I used:

Supply list:

Metal dustpan
Craft paints in white, black, true ochre, flag red, and light gray
White carbon transfer paper
An old toothbrush
Clear spray sealer
Scraps of coordinating fabric and lace
E6000 glue

The first thing I did was scrub this old dustpan to remove the dirt and loose rust.

I drew some simple chicken shapes to use as a pattern. You can also just print out a picture of some and trace them if you don't want to freehand them or use a stencil.

I used white transfer paper to trace the chickens onto the dustpan.

It didn't transfer very well just because of the rusty texture of the dustpan and my almost worn-out transfer paper but it was enough that I could fill in the chicken bodies with black and white paint.

And then their waddles and combs with flag red.

The legs, feet, and beaks are painted with True Ochre.

I then added dots and triangles to the chickens.

I made the dust with gray paint and a damp stencil brush. Dab the stencil brush into the paint and then wipe most of it back off. Create the look of dust by pouncing the paint onto the surface, just like you would if you were actually stenciling. Add a little black to the brush without cleaning the gray paint out of it and pounce that toward the bottom of the dust cloud.

Finally, I used an old toothbrush to add flecks of gray, black, and white. To do this, dip the toothbrush in water, dab it just once on a paper towel, then rub it around in some gray paint. Then use your thumbnail to flick the bristles of the toothbrush and splatter some specks around the chickens.

Cover the chickens with a scrap of paper so they won't get flecks all over them.

Once that is all dry, protect it with a coat of clear spray sealer.

I picked out some fabric from my stash that I thought went together and tore strips about 1" wide and 7-8" long.

I added in some plain muslin fabric and lace too.

Tie it all together with another strip of ribbon to make a cute rag bow.

I think it would be so cute if you had a business called The Dusty Chicken or Chicken Scratch Inn. You could add a tag with that name on it!

Would it be weird to start a business based on a painted dustpan?! 😂

If you added a magnet to the back of the bow instead of gluing it to the dustpan, you could use this as a dustpan since it has a clear protective coat.