Fall truly has to be the shortest season in Minnesota.  I think it lasts right around 3 weeks.

One day I’m still wearing shorts and wondering when the leaves are going to start changing and the next thing I know they have already fallen and I have to get my mittens out.

I suppose part of the problem this year is that I’ve been busy trying to get all of my Christmas items ready for the shop, so I’ve been in full on Christmas mode for the last two months, thus skipping right over fall.

In fact, I’ll be bringing most of my holiday items in to the shop tomorrow.  I leave for a visit with my mom on Friday and I won’t be back until after Reclaiming Beautiful’s Holiday Open House which will take place on Thursday, November 5 from Noon to 7 p.m.

So today I thought I’d share just one more holiday themed toolbox makeover with you guys before it heads to the shop.

This one was a heck of a garage sale find at just $2.  It’s getting more and more rare, but sometimes there are still people out there who just want to get rid of stuff so they price it accordingly.

I ordered another stencil from The Stencilsmith specifically for this toolbox, so in anticipation of its arrival I followed my usual procedure for prepping it.  After cleaning and scuff sanding, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss inside and out.

Next I painted the inside in Dixie Belle’s Ecru.  Once dry, I added the Gingham Black Tartan from an old re.design with prima transfer to the bottom.

Then I added a section from the I.O.D. Stag Tavern transfer to the inside lid.

As for the outside, I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Caviar and then added a portion of the North Pole Brewing Co stencil in Ecru.

The stencil comes with more wording on either side of that, and since that didn’t fit on the front of the box I moved those sections to the top of the box.

I stenciled those in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage for a little contrast.

The “Since 1939” on the front of the toolbox is from another stencil, and it’s also done in Dried Sage.  I needed something to add to that metal label because it was riveted in place and thus would have been difficult to remove.

Finally, I decided I wanted to do some sort of aged metallic look on the latches and the handle, so I painted them in Dixie Belle’s Bronze Patina Paint and then applied the green activating spray.

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to stage the photos for this one, especially since neither Mr. Q or I drink beer.  However, I ended up at the liquor store with my friend Annie last weekend and she spotted this …

A Christmas beer with the most charming illustrations on the label.

Perfect for a North Pole Brewing Co. toolbox.

Um, you might have now noticed that one of those beer bottles is empty.  Well, we didn’t drink it … but I did use it to make some chili.  And to be honest, turns out I don’t even like beer in my chili so I don’t think that 2nd bottle will ever get opened.

But, that’s OK.  It looked good for the photos 😉

As I mentioned, I’ll be bringing this toolbox into Reclaiming Beautiful tomorrow.  That is, unless one of my local readers wants to snatch it up first.  If so, you’ll want to act quickly so check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.