Easy Altered Coffee Tin Pen Pot Tutorial!!

Hello everyone!!  Don't you just love little tins!!!  I bought these small tins of coffee recently and thought that they could easily be re-used for something else!!  Initially I had hiped to alter the lid as well but that didn't go so well as the were difficult to paint and cover due to the texture and the fact that they had alot of ridges in them.  So hey - I thought a pen pot it will be!!!

Here's the tin before I did anything to it

So the first thing I did was paint the tin with Gesso to give a texture which would make it easier to stick my patterned paper onto.

I don't get on so well when using Gesso and then putting acrylic paint on top so I avoided doing that!!

I chose some nice paper - mine was 6 x 6 so I had to measure around the tin and join the paper.  The paper was from a pad called Life's Journey by K & Co.

After cutting my paper to size, I stuck double sided tape around the tin, pushing it into the rim with my nail to ensure it was stuck properly.

 Then I carefully stuck on my paper.

I wanted to use a lacy edging but didn't want real lace so I used this fab stick on paper lace that I picked up in a brilliant Japanese shop called Daiso.  The US and the Far East have lots of these stores and they have some fantastic bits and bobs in them for generally £1-£1.50 per item.  I've just found out that a Daiso is in the Japan Centre in Regent St, London - albeit much smaller than the branches abroad but it's a start!!!!  Not sure whether they stock the tape there though!

Here's the tape

Here's how it looks on my tin - I did the bottom edge as well but no photo of that yet!!  It covers up any imperfections on the edge of your paper!!

 

I then used a Sizzix flourish die and cut one out to put on the tin. I cut a few bits of it off so that it would fit on the tin nicely.

Here it is on the tin - you can see the lace tape on the top and bottom edge on this photo.

Ok - now to add a few flowers!  I cut them using the bits of leftover paper using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.  I brushed them over with some Distress Inks so that they had abit of colour.

I then shaped them with an embossing tool and stuck them together and added some pearl embellishments for the middle of the flower

and stuck them on the tin.

Just the right size for keeping my Sharpies!!!

Thanks for popping by!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to anyone that's a mum, sadly, I'm not a mum but hey ho!

Anyway - I've made a couple of cards this week - the first was of course for my mum for Mother's Day.  I used myTim Holtz Caged Bird die that I had for Christmas for this one as it is a favourite of mine. I also used a Sizzix flourish die I had bought a while back but not used before.  I think a card always looks nicer with a flourish!!!  I used alot of stickles on the card to make it sparkley and some paper flowers.  The lettering was done using Tim Holtz Vintage Market Alphabet die.  Here it is

The second card that I made was for my friend Shayne's birthday.  He was 40 yesterday!!!  As I couldn't go to the party I thought I'd make him a card instead.  He has 3 Chocolate Point Siamese cats so last year when I saw a Siamese cat stamp set on offer at Joanne Sheen I bought it with his birthday in mind!  It's tough doing cards for guys at the best of times and I didn't want to make it too fussy so this is what I came up with

Have to say the cat was really difficult to colour and I could probably do with practising blending those colours abit more!  Anyway I think it came out ok and he was pleased with it.  He didn't realise I had made it until I told him and he went to fetch it for another closer look!!

A friend of mine has always dabbled with music and has always had a soft spot for 80's type music.  He has made various tracks and cd's over the years and passed them around to friends but this time he has done it properly and is selling the album and individual tracks over on itunes.  He made a fab video whilst in Melbourne.  Here is the song - have a listen - WARNING contains men kissing!

If you are interested in purchasing this or any more of the album you can do so here.