Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!
I was so excited to recently be invited as a guest designer for
Steampunk is such a fun genre and their blog is a wonderful creative outlet for those of us who love Steampunk!
I was asked to create something for this challenge using matchboxes. Here is what I came up with ...
This dresser consists of 8 small matchboxes with Tim Holtz Ring Fasteners used as drawers pulls. Want to know how I made this?
Well ... grab a cuppa and I'll share how I did it.
1. Begin with however many matchboxes you want to use. I this case, I used 8.
2. Tape or glue the matchboxes directly on top of each other. If gluing, you might want to put a rubber band around them to secure them until the glue dries. I also created a center piece measuring 2" x 2 1/8" out of chipboard (to go between the matchbox drawers) and covered in the front with a piece of embossed metal foil sheet that has an antiqued finish. (Your chipboard piece may measure slightly differently, so be sure to measure you stacked matchboxes before cutting this center piece. When ready, glue or tape the stacked matchboxes to the center piece.
3. Measure the outside dimensions of the stacked matchboxes. In this case, the outside pieces measured 2" x 2 1/8". Cut 4 chipboard panels: one for either side, the bottom and the top. (The back piece will be different).
4. Brush Matte Multi Medium onto each piece of chipboard (outsides only) and cover with white tissue paper, purposely making texture out of bunching up parts of the tissue on the chipboard. Brush Matte Multi Medium over the tissue paper to seal it as well.
5. Arrange your embellishments on top of the chipboard and glue in place using Matte Multi Medium. Brush over the pieces with the multi medium as well. Heat set or air dry.
6. On my piece, I painted over all of the sides with white Gesso first and then with Black Acrylic Paint. I really think that just painting with the Black Acrylic paint would have been sufficient.
7. To create the back piece, I cut a piece of chipboard taller than the top of the dresser would be because I wanted to add a "backsplash" onto it. At the top, I used Tim Holtz' Ornate On The Edge die cut to create a decorative top. I used the remaining piece from this die cut on the bottom of the front of the dresser. I added some Melissa Frances Pearls to it to look like "rivets". (Check it out on the picture of the finished dresser.) Then I brushed Matte Multi Medium onto the top of the back and added small metal gears.
This is the outside of the back of the dresser. Brush with Matte Multi Medium and then place pieces onto the back. Brush over them with the Multi Medium again. Heat set or air dry.
8. Paint over the surface with Gesso and/or Black Acrylic Paint. Again, I painted it with Gesso first, let it dry and then covered it with the black paint. But, I think just painting the black paint would have been sufficient since I was going with a black base of color on this dresser. Light bulb just went off! You could use Claudine Hellmuth's Black Gesso on this, too! That would work in place of the white gesso and then the black paint! Just thought of that! ... Duh!
9. The top of the dresser ... I simply added some Tim Holtz Ball Chain to the edges using Matte Multi Medium as the glue and then brushed over the chain again to seal it.
Here is the same dresser top after all of the layers of paint have been added. What a difference! See what texture you get from the tissue paper? And the added ball chain doesn't even look like a ball chain anymore. Very cool! .... Back to the "how to".
Here are all of the side pieces painted with the Black Acrylic Paint.
10. Dry brush whatever color of metallic paint you like over the black acrylic paint. In this case, I used silver paint as my first coat and LIGHTLY dry brushed over everything. This takes a little time to do but the results are well worth it! Once dry, I used my finger and added little swipes of gold paint to add even more of a metallic feeling.
11. You could stop with step 10. But, I like to add subtle hints of "patina". So, in this case, I very lightly used my finger and some paint from a Juniper Paint Dabber and lightly brushed over high areas of some of the objects embedded on the chipboard.
~ Making the Drawers ~
12. LIGHTLY paint or stain or ink the interior walls and the exterior of all of the drawers with whatever color fits your project. (If you gunk up the exteriors of your drawers with too much paint, they will be too thick to close, so VERY LIGHTLY add your exterior color of paint or stain or ink). I used black. Measure the interior of the drawers and line them with paper. Before gluing the paper in place, you might want to add stamped images and distress the paper and edges. All of these are stamped in Jet Black Archival Ink and are from Tim Holtz' Tiny Things stamp set. They are the perfect size for these drawers.
13. I added Tim Holtz' Ring Fasteners as drawer pulls. They are like a brad in that they have two prongs that are on the backside of the fastener. I simply made a hole in the center of each drawer with a Tonic Craft Pick and slipped the prongs through the hole and opened them up on the inside of the drawer to hold them in place.
And here are pictures of the finished piece ... After gluing everything together, I added some Gold Paint Dabber (using my finger) around any edge that might show the chipboard or just to finish off any edges nicer.
The finished piece.
The Steampunk Dresser back. I used sewing machine bobbins for the feet of the dresser. They were finished the same way as the dresser.
The dresser top closeup. I made a "mirror" out of little metal frame that was bright silver. I finished it in the same way as the dresser. I added the vintage photo of the gentleman in the top hat, added chipboard back covered in book text and the copper metal piece over it. (see the photo above). I then glued the mirror to the backsplash using hot glue. I glued a small metallic crown to the center of the mirror. I used two clock hands on either side of the dresser and strung some chain across the dresser for more decoration. Using two small jump rings, I added a key to each side. All of these things that needed to be glued into place was done with hot glue.
On the dresser top you will find a small bird cage with a small crown glued on top, a "lantern" made from a small nut, a gear placed on top of it and a small lightbulb stacked on top of it. In the front is a copper bottle cap with a clock face image in the center covered by a cabochon that is glued in place and magnifying the clockface image.
The left side of the Steampunk Dresser.
The right side of the Steampunk Dresser.
The drawers actually work. They are the last thing to be added to the dresser when it is finished. They might be a tight fit; depending on how much color you added to their exteriors and how tight you glued together your dresser body. So, be aware of that when you are constructing your dresser.
So there you have it ... my matchbox challenge guest designer piece for
Thank you ladies for asking me to be a guest designer for you!
and ... thank YOU for stopping by my blog!
I hope that you like my little Steampunk style matchbox dresser and this tutorial has been an inspiration to you.
Join in on the fun at the Steampunk Challenge and share your steampunk style!
Here are all of the items that I used in creating this piece that are available at
Simon Says Stamp:
