lore green

Upcycled Beach Memories MDF Box with Texture Pastes and Mama Makes Stamp

Hi, for this post I am sharing with you my third version of the mini MDF memories boxes that I bought from the Poundshop for 50p. For this box I used various texture pastes and a script stamp from Mama Makes https://mamamakesstore.co.uk/. I will also share a technique that I’ve been playing with where I stamp onto white tissue paper and then decoupage it onto the MDF, it gives an effect similar to rice paper or a transparent film.

The tissue paper technique used on the inside of the box using Mama Makes Script stamp.

A few weeks ago I attended a craft workshop in Peterborough hosted by Mama Makes in honour of their second Birthday – it was such a lovely day! Mama Makes is a fantastic British stamping company run by the fabulous Loti whom also features regularly on Hochanda http://www.hochanda.com. I bought the script stamp that I used for the tissue paper technique from Mama Makes at the workshop. Since going to the workshop I have lots more of her stamps added onto my wish list, especially the sentiment sets. On the workshop we were shown lots of different types of texture pastes and we had the opportunity to experiment with them all. I had so much fun with the texture pastes that I was determined to make more use of them in my crafting. When I shared my bargain find on Facebook and was playing around with ideas of what to create with them Loti suggested a beach style memory box to keep those finds and memories from seaside holidays and day trips and I thought that was a great idea, especially as it would give me the perfect excuse to get the texture pastes out.

I painted the plain MDF box in a thin coat of white gesso and dolloped a blob of high density modelling paste onto the front of the box using a palette knife. Using the palette knife’s edge and flat tip I scraped and spread out the modelling paste to form cloud shapes. I painted the whole box in a light blue paint.
I added blue paint to the modelling paste and spread it onto the box using a palette knife to create the blue waves. I used a cream coloured gritted paste for the sand but you can also use a white sand texture paste that you can add your own colour to.

To create the stamped images on the inside of the box I used some white tissue paper and stamped out the script stamp three times onto it. I also used a stamp from my stash for the image of an anchor and compass/clock. If you want your stamped images to remain crisp and clear you will need to use a waterproof ink if the matte decoupage glue that you use is water-based like the one I used, this is because when the watery glue is spread over any water-based (non-waterproof) ink the extra water will cause the ink to smudge and bleed. However, I wanted a washed-out look to the text and images so it would tie-in with the beach theme so I used a distress ink (Vintage Photo) and as it’s a water-based ink it smudged as I pasted the decoupage glue over the top of the tissue paper onto the box. When the white tissue paper is glued down the tissue paper becomes transparent and all that appears is the inked image. It’s a simple technique but the tissue paper is by it’s nature very thin so you have to lay it down quickly and you can’t really move it once it is down and a gentle swipe of glue over the top is all it can take or else it can tear.


To finish I glued some shells around the box using a hot glue gun and stamped the seagulls around the box. I coloured the MDF anchor shape in with a metallic marker and wrapped some twine around it. To make the clouds stand out I went over their textured shapes with a white paint marker.

I loved the Mama Makes workshop and I only wish I was able to do more as it does give you a great opportunity to try new things and see and learn from others but workshops are complicated for me as a Spoonie (chronic illness sufferer). If you don’t count Make and Takes at craft shows this was only the second crafting workshop that I have been able to go to and it really has me wanting more, so fingers-crossed that my on-going physical rehab will get me there. I also hope with small improvements that I will get more of an opportunity to do more mixed media as I really enjoy messy crafting but I don’t get to do as much of it as my other crafts simply because when I’m not too well I can only engage in crafts that are suitable to be done from bed so sadly paints, ink and pastes are often out.

Thank you for stopping by and thank you Mama Makes for a fab workshop and for Loti’s suggestion of a beach memories box.

Lore x

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