Saturday 6 December 2014

Christmas Tin with {ELB Stamps by Designer Lin Brown}

Hi,  it's Lin here this evening to share a little Christmas gift idea with you. I'm decorating a metal pencil tin with Fresco Finish paint. I love how this paint sticks to just about everything, providing you prepare the surface of the substrate correctly. I chose a tin of pencils as my gift, I thought this would be perfect as a small gift for a teacher or anyone else that would appreciate a handmade gift. Alternatively, you could decorate a larger tin and fill it with home made cookies or sweeties.

This was a very inexpensive set of pencils which I think I bought from a pound shop a few years ago.
It's important to sand the tin and then remove all the dust.

Don't forget to sand the inside too. This tin of pencils came with an index card inside the tin which I kept as I thought it would be nice to decorate the inside of the tin too.

Using a small piece of Cut'n'Dry foam, I sponged an even coat of Snowflake Fresco on both the inside and outside of the tin. If you use a heat gun to dry the paint, remember that the tin will get very hot!

Next, I mixed some spray paints. I use 50/50 water and paint. It is important to put the water in the spray bottle first otherwise the paint will clog the spray mechanism. Add the paint slowly, shaking well between each addition of paint, this way, you will be sure the paint is thoroughly mixed. I mixed one bottle of Hint of Mint and one Evergreen. Both of these colours are from my Limited Edition set of Frescos.

I sprayed puddles of both colours onto the tin.
 Using the snowflake stamp from ELB10, I placed it in the wet puddle of Evergreen paint.....
ELB10,
and stamped it an a lighter area.
I repeated this process several times with the Evergreen and then did exactly the same thing with the Hint of Mint, this time stamping the image over a darker area. 
To add a little more detail to the tin, I sponged some Evergreen paint directly on to the stamp, to print darker and sharper images.
I also stamped some more snowflakes using both Hint of Mint and Snowflake.
At this point, I painted all the undecorated surfaces of the tin with Hint of Mint, using a small paint brush allowed me to get into all the tricky places. Once the paint was dry, I sponged on a layer of Matt Glaze to protect the paint. of course if you wanted some extra sparkle, you could use Metallic Glaze.
Now for the inside decoration. I painted over the index card with Hint of Mint and stamped the row of Christmas trees from ELB10 using Evergreen paint.
The image was looking a little sad and lost so I took a fine tipped black pen to outline all the trees. This made the image a little sharper. I also used some Snowflake paint to colour in one of the trees and add some extra details. The same with the Evergreen dots, I love this end of the paintbrush trick.
I used PS001, my spots background stencil to add a snowy background.
Using a baby wipe, I sponged a small amount of Evergreen around the edges to frame the picture.
A narrow braid really finishes off the edges.
 I made a little gift tag using a message from ELB11 as the finishing touch.


 ELB11

I hope this little project has inspired you to make a few of your Christmas gifts this year. I'm looking forward to seeing tins in all shapes and sizes.
Lin.

A huge thanks to Lin from all at PaperArtsy HQ for this gorgeous project, what a stunning way to present a gift... such a wonderful keepsake too. The puddling technique, and stamping into said puddles is so effective, a brilliant way to blend colours. 

We would love you to join in with the challenge. If you are inspired to action by any of this month's guests who have blogged in December 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You might win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 17:00 (London time) Dec 31st 2014, the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00, Dec 31st, 2014.

11 comments:

Helen said...

What a transformation of the pencil tin, it looks fabulous, Lin!

Kirsten said...

That is beautiful Lin, I love the insert & the snowflakes look so effective on the outside.

JoFY said...

very lovely!
x

Julie Lee said...

The perfect gift! I love the effect of the snowflakes on the tin and those pretty Christmas trees inside! Fresco paints are so versatile, they really do work so well on just about anything! xx

Linda S. said...

I must say, this project looks doable, even for beginners like myself. I tend to save every tin I come across, so just might have to have a go. Thank you for the detailed tutorial complete with pictures to help us see what you were talking about. A beautiful project, Lin.

finnella03 said...

Beautiful Lin, and a really great idea.

Etsuko said...

What a beautiful pencil tin Lin! And fabulous your stamps image and colours. Thank you for the great idea xxx

CastleKelly Crafts said...

This tin is beautiful, the paint effect is just perfect, oooh I need a tin! X

Lucy Edmondson said...

I love this, Lin, the double stamping effect looks great.

Lucy x

craftytrog said...

It's beautiful Lin, such a great technique!
Alison xx

craftimamma said...

This is gorgeous Lin! Love all the layered snowflakes and those two colours are yummy!

Hugs
Lesley Xx