I hope that you have been having a lovely week and enjoying the weather. I, for one, have had such a great time recently fulfilling bridesmaid duties (assuming 'duties' include stuffing your face with food at fancy restaurants & afternoon tea!), celebrating several weddings and simply enjoying the warm weather. Part of my enjoyment of these various occasions has been how lovely it has been to catch up with my lovely friends. It's so easy to forget what and who really matter sometimes but this little reminder, at this time, was exactly what I needed. 
Speaking of reminders, my recent spring (well, summer) clean led me to find a paint brush holder that has sat, unused and unloved, in the bottom of my arts and crafts draw (yes, I have an arts and crafts draw). Made of metal, it originally came with a set of Daler Rowney Simply Acrylic Brushes and although a great size, it was banished to the depths of my drawers for not co-ordinating with my living room (I'm pretty fussy when it comes to ornaments and decor!). Given the abundance and unruly (dis)organisation of my paint brushes, it seemed a shame to get rid of it and so instead I decided to find the time to decorate it so that it would co-ordinate with my living room and show you exactly how I did it.
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MΔTERIΔLS
Holder | Nail varnish
| Paint brush
| Acrylic paint
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| Paint brush | Acrylic paint---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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HERE'S HOW I DID IT...
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1. Rinse the surface with warm water and dry completely before painting with nail varnish. After a bit of googling, I discovered that nail varnish adheres rather nicely to metal. Here I used a clear nail varnish however it may be easier to use a coloured nail varnish (e.g. white) so that you can see where you have already painted.
2. Mix up your acrylic paints to create the colour you want your holder to be, paint all over the holder and leave to dry overnight. Here, I found it best to paint a rough first coat in smooth vertical strokes which I left to completely dry before painting the next coat. I repeated this process, slowly building up the layers by alternating between vertically and horizontally. Once I was happy with the coverage, I then mixed some water into the remaining paint and went over the entire holder to smooth out any lumps and bumps.
3. Draw a pattern onto the painted holder using a pencil. Here, I used a measuring tape and ruler to create a rather precise overlapping triangle pattern.
4. Mix up your acrylic paints and paint the pattern as you would like. Here, I painted (freehand) every other diamond shape white and the diamonds in between light grey.
5. Leave this to dry and paint any final details. Here, I painted a silver triangle in the gap between each diamond. To make sure the edges were nice and neat, I used post-it notes which I removed once the paint was dry.
... and voila!
I'm really happy with how this little project turned out and am pleased to report that my brushes are now stored neatly in the holder, which now sits proudly n my desk.
Have you ever used nail varnish to adhere paint to metal?
Let me know what you think of this post in the comments below!
♥
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