Happy Saturday afternoon, folks! I hope you are all enjoying the weekend.  I’ve had a grand day: enjoying a leisurely breakfast with my honey followed by shopping for groceries (yes, I am one of those odd people that actually loves to grocery shop), baking my favorite oatmeal cookies, and as I’m writing this, I have two loaves of French Bread rising in the kitchen.  It must be the sunshine and glorious spring weather that has me so inspired.  On top of all that, I get to share one of my most recent altered projects with you: my ABC Primer Altered Printer’s Tray.

My friend Sally asked me if I could alter a 7 Gypsies Printer tray as a gift for a recent college graduate.  She wanted the tray painted and aged.  After giving the printer’s tray a very light sanding, I painted it with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in Antique Linen.  Once the paint had dried to a delightfully shabby crackled finish, I rubbed a scrubbing sponge over parts of the surface to reveal more of the original brown foundation.  I also hit it with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and then sealed the whole thing with Studio Matte Multi Medium.  I was thrilled with how well this worked.

If you click on the photo, you’ll be able to see the distressed finish more closely.  This is the top tier of the tray, featuring a banner with the graduate’s name.  Since Jennie received her Masters of Science in Childhood Eduation, using Graphic 45 ABC Primer was a natural choice for altering this tray. 

Here’s a closeup of the first opening in this ABC Primer Altered Printer’s Tray.  I’ve added fun chipboard embellishments and a vintage wooden spool to decorate.  The primary colors look great with the antique linen distress paint.

The second panel features this sweet little boy and a snippet of that fabulous yellow ruler from the cut apart page of the collection.  I used two patterns to back the panels: the fun red dot, and the cream and black stripe.  I stitched around the perimeter of each panel, distressed the edges and inked them with Vintage Photo Ink.  The smaller images were matted on black paper after inking the edges.

  This third panel contains a handmade mini book.  The images were cut from the paper collection, mounted on chipboard and then bound into a mini with pockets for tags.  Here’s a look at the pages inside the book:

And here are the tags that are tucked inside the mini book.  Each tag has room to add a photo on one side, and an inspirational quote about education on the other. I left one tag blank so that Sally could write a personal note.

That covers the top tier….now a quick look at the panels on the bottom tier:

There you have it!  My ABC Primer Altered Printer’s Tray.  I had soooooo much fun putting this together.  You can’t see it, but the sides of the tray are also covered with the ABC border taken from the collection.  Here’s one last peek at this vintage goodness:

Remember: you can click on the photos for a better view of the details. 

That’s all for today, folks.  My timer just went off, telling me my bread dough is ready to be shaped into loaves, so I’d best be off. Thanks for stopping by my little blog today.  If you have any questions, please be sure to ask.  And, if you have time to leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you.  Your comments make me happy right down to the tips of my crafty little fingers!  Until next time…

Cheerio,

kathy

Products used in this project: 7 Gypsy’s Prnter Tray; Graphic 45 ABC Primer paper collection and chipboard; Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in Antique Linen; Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo; HOTP School Almost Done Pages; Buttons and Spool from my stash.