boxed set

From Habitat magazine - issue 18

Give a plain set of storage cubes a lift with fun flag designs.

Paint fun flag designs

You will need:

White cloth storage cubes and a frame (we got ours from Storage Box)
Reference images of flags
Pencil and ruler
Resene KidzColour testpots in Resene Bright Spark, Resene Kermit, Resene Rocket, Resene Sports Star and Resene Surfs Up
Square-ended paint brushes in small and medium sizes

Hints and ideas:

Make up your own flag designs using colours and forms you like.
Use the colours of your favourite sports teams instead or just paint a design on the front of the fabric boxes.
Get mum or dad to help you draw on the designs, or paint on the straight lines, then you can paint in the colour.
If you want, use masking tape down the outside of the straight lines and paint inside that.
When you feel like a change, just paint over the existing pattern or turn them round and start again!

How to decorate storage cubes:

Supplies/Step one: Borrow a book from the library on flags of the world or look them up on the internet. Decide which flags you want to put on the front of your cloth boxes. We picked flags with simple shapes because they are easier to paint: They are from the United Kingdom, Palau, Italy and Switzerland.

Step 2: Photocopy or print off larger images of the flags you chose to use as a reference. Use the side of the cloth box without a handle or hole. Then use the pencil and ruler to make your painting guides, altering the images to fit a square as necessary. If you are using a flag with a circle, for example the Palau flag, centre a bowl on the box and draw round it.

Step 3: Start painting. We used Resene Bright Spark (yellow) and Resene Sports Star (blue) for Palau; Resene Kermit (green) and Resene Rocket (red) for Italy; Resene Rocket (red) for Switzerland; and Resene Rocket (red) and Resene Surfs Up (dark blue) for the United Kingdom. Use the small brush to do the outlines then fill in with the larger brush. Let one colour dry completely before starting the next. When they are all dry, pop them inside the frame!

Accessories: Wooden train and tin top from Be Ba Bo, ph 0800 23 22 26; www.bebabo.co.nz.

words and styling: Helena Dunn
pictures: Mark Heaslip

▸ Download a PDF of this article

winter 2013

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