Painted Pumpkin Basket with DIY Transparency Lettering

Sometimes when you're thrifting, you find something that catches your eye but you have no idea what you're going to do with it, right? 

But you get it anyways. 

Then, inspiration hits and you realize you have something amazing on your hands. 

I love when that happens :) 

I found this little basket on a random Saturday that we spent roaming garage sales. 

I walked by it several times before deciding that it needed to come home with us. 

There were a ton of things I loved about it: 

the oil rubbed bronze handle that was oversized and awesome, the fact that it was some kind of wooden veneer material that could be easily painted, it's weird oval shape & huge bonus that it had this awesome brass/gold edge on the bottom of it. 

I figured it would be perfect for some sort of project. 

And when coolish weather and pumpkins started hitting our area, I was struck with the fact that it needed to be fall related. 

I wanted something that had chippy paint & typography and I ended up with a gorgeous mix of the two!!

First things first, I taped off the brass bottom and the handles and gave it a couple coats of a whispy blue I had on hand. 

After painting, I chipped the paint off in areas around the edges of the basket to give it a nice worn look. 

It took me a while to figure out what type of wording to put on it. 

Then I stumbled on an image of a vintage pumpkin seed packet and I knew it was perfect. 

I typed the lettering into Picmonkey.com, saved the images and then decided to wing it as far as applying it to the basket. 

I had some transparencies that I had been saving that I picked up at a school closing sale.

After googling it, I decided to try my hand at making my own rub-ons of sorts.  

Here's the VeRy basic run-down on how I did it: 

1. Find the lettering/image you want to use and save to your computer.

Make sure any text you're wanting to use is saved in 'reverse'. 

2. I wanted my text to be larger than a normal sheet of paper so I used blockposters.com to enlarge my font to the size I wanted.

After creating the image, it gave me the option to print. 

3. Print your image/text on the glossy side of the transparency paper. 

Make sure to not touch the wet ink after it prints. 

4. Apply the transparency paper ink-side DOWN onto the surface you want it to adhere to. 

Use a wooden spoon or Popsicle stick to burnish your image onto your item. 

I found that lightly rubbing did the trick because if you pushed down to hard, the ink would smear. 

5. Carefully lift up your paper and check out your beautiful image!!

I love love loved the result!!

It gave me a perfectly worn look without any distressing necessary- the ink settled into cracks & imperfections and didn't go on incredibly dark so it looked aged all by itself! 

The ink did take a while to dry so let your item dry for a while- I let mine sit overnight before messing with it.

Then I sprayed a clear coat of spraypaint over it to help protect it even more. 

I'm kind of obsessed with my new pumpkin basket!! 

I filled it with some cut fabric pumpkins that I got on sale from JoAnn's.
Isn't that mustard fabric gorgeous? 

I have big plans for a scarf & some headbands out of it :) 

Here's the Before & After comparison of my little thrifty basket: 

Isn't is so much more fun in pale aqua and distressed lettering??

I definitely think so!!

I have so many fun fall ideas in my head but I'm also holding out on a BIG secret that I'm hoping to be able to reveal verrry soon that kinda has an effect on my fall decorating!!

Happy Wednesday friends!

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Linking to: 
Your Whims Wednesday @ My Girlish Whims. 
Link Party Palooza @ I Heart Naptime. Creative Collection @ Blooming Homestead. The Party Bunch @ Whipperberry. The Best of the Weekend @ Cottonwood Lane