I pulled this galvanized box out of my stash the other day.

I thought I could dress it up with some paint and more of the new I.O.D. Lover of Flowers transfers.  I went through the transfers and decided the forget-me-nots would be lovely on it, so that led me to then chose Dixie Belle’s Serenity Silk paint for the box.

It’s a really lovely shade of blue-green that leans a little towards grey, and it works beautifully with the colors in the forget-me-nots.

I scuff sanded my box, then washed it up with Dawn dish soap and hot water.  The Silk paint then went on as smooth as … well … silk.

But I forgot one little, bitty thing.  The Silk paint is an acrylic paint.  And I find that it does not adhere to smooth metal as well as chalk paint.  It tends to be more prone to scratching, and more importantly, prone to pulling away from your surface when you try to apply a transfer.  You can see where that began to happen as I was applying the typography portion of the transfer …

There are a couple of things I could have done differently.  First up, I could have used the Bonding Boss first to improve the adhesion of my paint.  But I didn’t.  Second, I could have let my paint dry for at least 24 hours before adding the transfer.  But I didn’t.  Third, I could have just used a chalk paint since I was painting over a slick surface.  But, I didn’t do that either.

After struggling to get the first portion of the transfer down, and finding that my paint was pulling away.  I put everything aside and let my paint dry until the next day.  I was then able to carefully apply the rest of the transfer successfully.

I should point out that I purchased two sets of the Lover of Flowers transfer.  I knew I would be able to use it on lots of small projects, and I also knew that I.O.D. new releases tend to sell out quickly so I stocked up.

I used the forget-me-not poem from one set, and the floral swags from both sets to decorate this box.

I cut both of the swags apart to create one swag that was twice as wide.  I wanted to fill the entire space on the front of my box.

I finished up with a coat of clear wax over the entire box.  Although the Silk paint has a built in topcoat, the transfer does need to be sealed.

Although I originally just filled it with books for my photos, I also think it would make a great container for some flowering houseplants.

As a sidebar, the plant on the right is the Streptocarpus Ladyslippers™ Deep Blue Vein from my front window box that I decided to try overwintering in the house this year.  It has had lots of lush green foliage all winter, but it only recently started putting out blooms again.  On the right is a potted azalea that some friends gifted me with the other day.

I’m not going to keep this one though, I’ll be adding it to the pile of stuff I’ve set aside for a potential occasional sale this summer, unless one of you locals wants to snatch it up first!