Introduction to Stash Adventures: a Magnetic Palette

I'm going to start this crafting blog by talking about makeup for a little bit.

I learned about magnetic palettes a few years ago and thought they were a nifty little idea, but never felt driven to invest in one. All my eye shadows were already in their palettes. And I had so many colors. So so many colors. Why do I have all these colors?

Over time it has become increasingly important to me to be more responsible with the products I buy, and making sure to use up as much of what I already have that I can. This has definitely changes the way I buy make-up, but I've recently started applying this mindset in my art studio as well. I grew up with a very crafty mom, from whom I've adopted many a craft supply, and truly dislike the idea of ever throwing away a potential future project. I've now begun referring to the overflowing boxes and drawers that have coalesced in my studio as "the junkyard," (lovingly, of course.)

So today we are starting a project to kill off some of the accumulation I've got going on. By, as you might have assumed, making a magnetic palette.

I'll be reusing a jewelry box from an old purchase. Its a little smaller than I would like, but also happens to be really deep, so I think this palette's gonna be a double-decker.

The idea is to have a second level, held up by a inner wall of craft sticks, that is removable with a piece of ribbon attached to the bottom.

To start, I marked out measurements for the cardboard plate and the length of the craft-sticks, trimming them down with a box cutter, and sanding down the wood edges.

Then I took them outside for some spray painting sessions (a vibrant red), coating the craft sticks and the outside of the box (with the top masked off). I also gave the cardboard a white wash with some acrylics.

I knew starting this that I would want to cover the sides of the cardboard, as it's corrugated. It's just not something I want to look at nor hear whenever I take it out. So I decided to wrap it in a layer of red ribbon, cutting out four pieces matching the length of each side. Then I pressed it in place on top with a couple of dots of E6000, and then folded it over to seal down the back.

What I did not account for was the added bulk of layering fabric over the corners. When I went to check the size, it sadly no longer fit in my box. And so I started all over again. And then again, because I overcompensated and made it too small. I lost three hours of my life to a 3 x 3 inch piece of cardboard.

But we move on.

By now the outer sections of my box have dried and I can paint the inside. I used a bit of gold paint to do the inner walls of the bottom and top halves. I had gotten some stray spray on the inside of the lid, but could easily cover it up with a sheet of white paper. I also ended up adding some matte finish to the outer red paint after it started to chip in a few places.

For the top I wanted to try a bit of an art nouveau style. I sketched out a lily design and some sweeping vines to start, and painted them with a black gesso; I thought the rougher finish would be a nice compliment to the glossy white of the lid. I also painted a gold border to the design and extended some gold accents down the red sides of the lid to help conceal some of the aforementioned chipping.

I added a little leaf design to the white bottom of my cardboard piece as well. No one will ever see this, but I love me some hidden details.

Decorations complete, its time to start putting everything together.

This specific project came to my mind when I was moving some furniture around and found a bag of old "vent covers," and these are what I'll be using as the sheet magnet on the bottom of my palette.

For the bottom layer I've just cut it to match the box, securing them down with white glue.

Then I'm taking my craft-sticks and gluing them against the lower sides of the box, holding them in place until they stand on their own.

For the second level, I've cut it to lay just over the sides of the ribbons and rounded to corners a bit. Flipping it over, I'm attaching two longer strands of ribbon to use as my pullls. (With the size of the final piece, I decided two parallel ribbons would be more stable than one when trying to lift it in and out.)

And voila! a double-decker magnetic palette. A wonderful new home ready for my single shadows and some soon-to-be-de-potted palettes.

There's a couple of dingy spots on the lid- a side effect of its age in my closet, and sometimes the corners of the insert make it align a bit funky in the box, but I'm happy with how this came out. This was the first project I've done for myself in a while, and it was so refreshing to indulge myself like this. I'm really exited to do more of these DIYs in the future.

I know this was a long one, so if you've made it this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

-Tilney

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/aa312d_de7a7b5eb38c47e0af8b29935ed0a130/1080p/mp4/file.mp4