Get Out of Jail Free

Many years ago, my husband received this game as a going away present after working for an organization for five years. He was insulted, to say the least. After letting this game take up space in our home for over twenty years, I was all set to throw the pieces into the recycling, when I had one of those "I'm havng a thought here, Barbossa" moments. (Still in love with Captain Jack Sparrow, can't be helped).

A thin coat of gesso applied with a card. That's better already.

Might as well stick with the theme. The printed pages were the game instructions.

Whoa! Just a little too bright, maybe? Actually, by this point I had already painted, gessoed over, and repainted the background. 

Adding marks. I used a stencil, the edge of a credit card, bubble wrap, the oval plastic piece that comes in a stick deodorant, and the circle is the extra handle from a cooking pot (long story). The solid white rectangles were made with a sponge, and the open small, white squares and rectangles were made with the bottoms of a house and a hotel from the game.

I waned to use lots of elements from the game. The tree was painted in black acrylic.

Adding details. I stamped a swirly line over the property cards using Staz On ink, used the Community Chest cards (enhanced with paint) for the windows and doors. Tree was accented with a Posca pen and a water-based Sharpie poster pen. 

I smudged white paint around the houses and upwards to soften some of the brightness of the sky and to create the illusion of fog. I added shading to the houses with colored pencils, did outlining with various pens, and covered the windows with Glossy Accents to make them shine.

The back.

Repurposed Boxes

We recently bought a bunch of thermal shirts, and I thought the boxes they came in would make great drawers for storing crafting supplies. I covered the top and sides with recycled, painted printer paper, and gave it a coat of Mod Podge. I painted the front of the drawer, too. I may end up decorating the box more, but for now I like it as it is. I need to decide if I am going to glue all the boxes together in a stack or not.