Hello, you beautiful bucket of rust!

 

I love tool boxes.   Cheerful, Useful, Organized Storage, what’s not to love?

I had a plastic one when I was a kid….maybe it was a tackle box?  Pretty much the same thing.  I loved the little containers inside and the super duper way it clicked closed and could be toted around the house like a weird purse.

I’ve graduated to the big girl version, these days: rusty, metal, HEAVY DUTY tool boxes.   I found the big red one at an estate sale for $5.  It was very yucky, rusty, dirty.   I walked past it a few times actually, before finally deciding to take it home with me.   I cleaned it up, coated it with a clear sealer to prevent more rust and filled it up with treasures.  

I found the green metal tool box/ tackle box at the Ronald McDonald fundraiser sale this year for $2.   I could not believe it was $2.  I checked to make sure it actually opened and closed and latched….and it did!  Oh yeah, that baby’s coming home with me.    I cleaned it and painted on the clear sealer;  I’m not scared of rust!  

I haul these two boxes around to the workshops I lead at ReHouse and let people choose things to decorate their projects.  There are broken pieces of jewelry, zippers, nails, pieces of  molding, hinges, cabinet pulls and other assorted  “junk” that I use to make letter art. 

 

This “I love you” sign uses :

brick laying metal pieces,

a broken candlestick part,

a zipper,

and pieces of an old wooden measuring stick for letters.  

I glued/nailed the letters on a “lazy Susan” that I found at an estate sale for $1.  The lazy Susan part of it was broken, but it was still a solid piece of round wood, so I grabbed it.   I like picking up interesting, broken pieces that can be turned into a canvas for an art project and given a new lease on life.