Upcycled Yarn Holder

There are new shinies in the shop!


Be sure to check out the other projects for Trash to Treasure Tuesday over at Reinvented!

This project







To warn you this post is a little lengthy because there were so many steps involved.

With drying times (and several other things going on), this project took me two days.

A few months ago my friend Judy handed me an empty oatmeal container and asked, "Can you make me a steampunk yarn holder out of this?"

She'd just given me a ton of gorgeous beads so how could I not want to reciprocate and do something nice for her? Since then, the container has been staring at me from my floor while I pondered the materials I would use to transform it. This weekend, it all came together.

To thoroughly cover the original container design, I used a scrap of white, paintable wallpaper. Wallpaper? Yep! Kimm gave me the idea - check this out.

I traced my container onto the back of the wallpaper with a pencil and carefully cut out the size I would need.

Using regular white glue, I poured a lot on the back of the wallpaper. I probably could have used water to moisten the pre-glued wallpaper, but considering I am applying this to cardboard, I didn't think that would be a good idea.

Once the glue was spread I carefully lined up my container and rolled it along, pressing firmly to make sure there were no bubbles. Once it was on, I walked away and let it dry for a few hours.

When I was sure the glue was dry under the wallpaper I took a razor knife and trimmed the excess paper around the plastic area where the lid goes. If you don't do this, your lid won't snap shut properly.

Then I made a wash (part paint, part water) out of two colors of acrylic craft paint - burnt umber and metallic gold. I only used a few drops of the gold paint since I wanted a subtle sheen. I applied the wash with a large brush and let the first coat dry. Then I came back and brushed on a second, heavier coat, blotting at it with a paper towel to leave some places a little darker and to make the design have more depth and a more aged look.

I then let the whole thing dry overnight.

Though glued, painted, and dried, the wallpaper is still a bit fragile and I applied two coats of spray can clear sealant to protect it.

Now for the lid! I have a great piece of scrapbook paper that looks like leather so I traced the lid onto the back of the paper, cut it out, and mod podge'd it onto the top of the lid.

Once the glue was dry I gave it two coats of clear sealant as well.

Now for the embellishments! Steampunk style, being inspired by Victoriana is meant to be functional but gorgeous and detailed at the same time. This in mind, I dug out the trims and tacks. The points on the tacks were too long - they would have poked all the way through the container, so using some heavy duty wire cutters, I snipped the sharp bits off and dug out the glue gun.

I applied my embellishments to places where they could be functional as well - such as added reinforcement to hold down the seams. All the embellishments were hot glued.

Then I cut a hole through the lid using a razor knife so that the yarn can come through and the container doesn't have to be open. I would have liked to put a gromet there, but I didn't have any. *sad face*

And just for fun I added "knit" and "purl" with stickers that look like old tyepwriter keys.

Take a look at the finished product:

It's also a good idea to take a lightly damp cloth to the interior of the container to remove any oatmeal dust left in there.

Technically there is nothing steam powered about this, but it does have a "period piece" look to it, right?

If you decide to make your own oatmeal container yarn holder, be sure that, whatever materials you use to cover it, they are sealed, protected and functional. And most importantly - let your imagination go wild!