Let's Get Organised by Abigail Lagden

It's been a magical summer for me running many workshops for children (and adults) during the holidays. I've helped budding wizards create over 100 wands and 50 spell books!

But now, as they all head back to school, I felt it was time to treat myself to some special storage for my everyday essentials. And this fantastic MDF storage caddy by Candy Box Crafts fits the bill perfectly.

As it comes flat packed, I started by trying to work out how all the pieces fit together to make the organiser and I have to say it was quite a bit easier than I expected.

Once I knew where all the pieces were going I used bronze Powertex to glue them together by painting a very thin layer on the joining surfaces and fitting them all together (I also painted all of the inside surfaces with bronze Powertex as I wanted a dark interior). 

Top tip - I used elastic bands around the outside of the organiser to hold all of the pieces tightly together whilst the Powertex dried.

I confess, with this project I didn't really know where I was going with the decoration at the start, I just knew that I wanted it not to be too bulky so that it would fit onto my already jam packed work surface. So I started by using Easy Structure paste through stencils to add an embossed pattern to all four sides - as well as some other stencils from my stash, I used the fabulous Fossilized and Wonderland stencils by the Secret Art Loft.

The structure paste was allowed to dry before all four sides were painted with Lead Powertex and small 3D Balls sprinkled into the wet Powertex.

I then mixed a paste using Lead Powertex and Easy 3D Flex which a spread over some of the blanker areas of the sides using a palette knife and pushed some pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into the paste on the front. This was left overnight to allow the paste to dry and crack.

I then used Powerwax mixed with Powercolor pigments to apply layers of colour using a sponge. I used the following pigment colours - turquoise, green, white, blue, burgundy and lilac. And finally dry brushed using Rich Gold Colortricx mixed with Easy Varnish.

To brighten up the centre piece I decoupaged it using EasyCoat Mat and pieces of this gorgeous rice paper.

Once it had all dried it was time to put it to use. Apologies for the state of my bottles and brushes but was made to be a working storage caddy so it would have been unbelievable for everything to be brand new and spotless. Two 1kg Powertex bottles fit into their compartments perfectly and then there is still plenty of space left for brushes, and your other crafty essentials.

Hope you have enjoyed this month's project and have been inspired to get organised. 

You can see more of my work, my workshops and my antics on my Curiously Contrary facebook page and website.

Until next time, Abs xx