Vintage-ing a LED Lantern

 Hi all ^^

This was a fun little project I thought I'd share, it only took me half a day or so (including waiting for paints to dry - so very quick!) and it's such a HUGE difference.

I got the lantern in Ikea, this is what it originally looked like:

Cute right? It's actually pretty nice for a piece of plastic, but I saw immediately that it had potential for so much more ;)

The first thing I did was cover all the black parts in Collage Medium, even though it's a glue it works great as a primer for sleek\non-porous surfaces. Then I started adding details to make the lantern look more authentic.

I removed the string from the top and replaced it with wire, then I drilled a hole at the top of each side-handle and added a long wire handle. I also wrapped a wire around the lamp part, which I connected at the bottom by drilling two small holes and inserting the edges. the wires are all a bit crooked, but hey - it's supposed to look vintage right? ;)

The last wire detail was a small lever that I inserted at the bottom part into another little hole I drilled. next to it I glued die cuts of numbers. I cut them from black cardstock to save on painting them, but really it can be any color.

On the other side I added a little knob. This is supposed to replicate the opening where they'd add oil, and it's was the hardest detail to find. I tried a lot of options and ended up using some rubber part I got from an old computer I took apart (I think it was meant to keep some parts in place, but not sure...). I think it looks pretty good, but it so funny when you touch it and realize it's rubber 😂

The lantern already looked pretty authentic once everything was glued, and I could just leave it in black, but I really wanted to rust it up ^^
I added Finnabair's metallic waxes to the black to create a metal base and then used her Rust Effect Paste trio - I LOVE this stuff! It took some layering and playing (and waiting), but finally I was happy with the rust illusion.

To finish it, I added some highlight with the waxes and a bit of patina with Tim Holtz's distress paints in blue and green. It was barley a drop of paint on the whole thing, but it's amazing what difference it makes!

I liked the results so much I decided to add it to the SanDee&amelie's March 2020 Steampunk Challenge, there are some seriously amazing works there so do check it out!

Hope you enjoyed this little project! Now excuse me while I go look for other things to 'rust-up' ;)

Have a great weekend and take care xx