A little while back one of my readers, who also happens to live near me, offered me a box of bottlebrush trees and this blue tacklebox.

That was awfully kind of her, don’t you think?

I rather liked that pretty shade of cobalt blue, but I didn’t love the stenciled yellow wording or the big patches of rust.  The lid was a bit banged up too.  So I used a hammer to mostly pound the lid back into shape (pound gently from the inside to push a dent out), then I did my usual cleaning/sanding/priming with Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S.  Then I decided to pay homage to the original color of this tackle box by painting it in Dixie Belle’s Cobalt Blue.

It’s a bit brighter than the original color of the tackle box, but who doesn’t need to brighten up these gloomy winter days a bit?  Might as well beat the winter blues with some Cobalt Blue.

I painted the box inside and out in the Cobalt.

So far I’ve used the I.O.D. Rose Chintz paint inlay over white, black and green, so this was my chance to try it over blue.

Sure enough, it works beautifully over blue too!

I ran the paint inlay all the way around the bottom portion of the tackle box.  Next came deciding what to do on the top.  I wasn’t sure that the black lettering of my usual I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfers would work.  So I decided to do a test board.

I painted it with the Cobalt Blue, then I pulled out some transfer scraps in black, gold and white to see how they looked over the blue.  The black was my least favorite, but then I’ve never been a big fan of the combination of black and blue.  The gold actually looked quite nice over the blue, but I didn’t think it would work as well with the paint inlay colors.  I was surprised to discover that I actually liked the white the best.  That is a scrap from the I.O.D. Traditional Pots transfer.

I have to say, the newer white transfers are a huge improvement over the old ones.  Or, at least these Traditional Pots are.

So I went with some bits and pieces from that transfer on the top of the toolbox.

Looks pretty good, right?

The white transfer ties in nicely with the little touches of white in the paint inlay.

I used clear wax to seal the top and interior of this box, and I used a spray matte sealer over the paint inlay.  If it were summer I would have spray sealed the entire thing, but this time of year I try to keep my spraying to a minimum.  It involves taking the item outside, spraying quick, and then bringing it back inside to dry.

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure at first how I was going to stage this one.  Then I remembered my pretty blue and white tea cup, and I thought it would make the perfect prop.  But what to fill it with?

Q tips of course!

And that led to staging this one as a makeup case.

I mean, why not, right?  Who says you can’t keep your cosmetics in a tacklebox?

If the Cobalt Blue is just a bit too much for you, I recommend trying Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue as an alternative.

Next time I think I might try a 50/50 mix of both colors, which might be just perfect for a piece of furniture.  But for today, that pop of Cobalt Blue is perfect for beating the winter blues.

If any of you locals would like a Cobalt Blue tacklebox for your makeup, or for anything else, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details because this one is for sale.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the B.O.S.S. and paint used in this makeover.