Thrift Store Up-cycle!

Hello, Lisa Hoel here! Once upon a time I stumbled across this vintage microscope kit in the bulk bins at the thrift store. It was far from complete but it did have the actual microscope and some of the original parts. It was cheap and in a fairly rough and incomplete state – a perfect candidate for an art project!

The case itself was in pretty good shape.

Inside!

I cut pieces of heavy watercolor paper to fit over the original cardboard inserts. They were kind of beat up so they needed covering. I also wanted to be able to stamp and stencil on the inside surfaces! The base color is a combination of Squeezed Lemonade and Antique Linen Distress Oxide Sprays and then I mostly used Prism inks, a new line of inks Topflight Stamps is now carrying for the stamping and stenciling.

Details:

I thought the Katzelkraft Monsters Stamp Set looked like little microscopic beasties so they were perfect to stamp and fussy cut for embellishing this project.

The kit originally came with two books. I replicated the cover of one using design software and then stamped one of the Monsters stamps onto it.

The second side:

Those little monsters crack me up! I love working with the Katzelkraft stamps.

Thanks for stopping by! Below is a list of supplies I used. 

Topflight Stamps Products:

Katzelkraft - Monsters

PaperArtsy - Tracy Scott 24 stamp set

Stamperia - Corrugated Cardboard

Stamperia, Antonis Tzanidakis stencil - KSAT05

Visible Image Stencil - Collision

Prism inks - Apple Green, Peacock Green, Smoked Paprika

Blender tool