Sunday, February 12, 2012

Fresh Breath, An ATC, & A Gift

Hi crafty people! I have a long tutorial post, so you might want to make a snack and a cup of tea, or pour a glass of wine before sitting down to view this. I have made a Valentine gift for my children's teachers using empty Altoids tins, as well as an ATC using the same materials. The tin qualifies for Simon Says Stamp and Show's recipe challenge of "torn edges, distress ink, a button, and wings", and the ATC is for Grungy Monday's challenge of "an ATC Tim style". There is a whole lot of texture going on, so the tin will also be entered in the Stamp Man's "texture" challenge.
I gave the empty tins a couple of coats of red spray paint. Addicting!!! I wanted to paint a mural on the garage door, but the neighbors probably would hate that, and call the gang police unit to my house.
When it was completely dry after 24 hours, I sanded the corners, edges, and raised areas exposing the metal underneath. Using my fingers, I rubbed Pitch Black Acrylic Paint all over the tin, and especially focused on the sanded areas and scratches. Good thing I am not a manicure type girl (pedicures yes!) because I still had mechanic looking nails after 2 days. After a few hours of drying, I coated the the whole tin with Rust Sophisticated Finishes. After a another few hours, I repeated a coat. The next day, I had nicely aged tins.
Using wood grained image paper, I cut 1 inch strips and adhered them to Grunge Board using Glue N Seal. I did the same thing with 1 1/2 x 2 inch strips of button image paper. I cut each strip out and die cut the wood grain with the Mini Dress Form Die.
The bodice of the dress form would not be seen, so to save materials and time, I die cut the Mini Thread Spool using the dress form. The button strips were used to die cut only the bodice area of the dress form.
I trimmed the bodice and adhered it to the wooden dress form, then inked the whole thing with Fired Brick then Gathered Twigs. The spools also were inked with Gathered Twigs.
I did not have wings small enough to fit the dress form, so I altered the holly leaf from the Mini Pine Tree Die Set, using Grunge Paper...perfect size!!!
I painted the 'wings' gold and embossed them with the rays texture fade...it's my fav for all wings.
The wings got a coat of Rock Candy Crackle and after fully dried they were ink with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink then heat embossed with UTEE.
A little Inka Gold was rubbed into the wings for even more depth...love this stuff introduced to me by another blogger, but I have forgotten who...sorry (If you are out there drop me a note!). The winds were attached.
Here is my new favorite thing...mini Timmy scissors and a quick tutorial to make them!  I purchased these metal scissor charms on Ebay, and decided they needed to be Tonic-fied! I used alcohol ink in Red Pepper for the handle and Pitch Black for the blades.
I rubbed the handle part in the Embossing Distress Ink and then stuck it in the Fired Brick Distress Embossing Powder until I was ready to heat it up.
I used pliers to hold it while heating so I would not get burned. It was easy to just pluck them out of the powder, heat, and them pluck back in until the desired thickness was reached, and there was no clean up...yay!!! Mini Timmy scissors...my new obsession!!!
This is a cork board I made on the Tim cruise with Wendy Vecchi in 2009. She taught us how to use patterns as collage background, which was something I had never seen before back then. I still had some scraps of the pattern pieces so I used them on the background for this project. Thank you Wendy!
I cut an ATC with a die and the other rectangles were cut to fit the lid on the tins (2 x 3 1/4 in.). I coated them with Glue N Seal and then mish-mashed the pattern over it allowing for lots of wrinkles. It was easy to just tear the pattern off the edges and it left a very nice distressed border to ink up.
I inked the background pieces with Gathered Twigs, clipped the corners, added some ruler pieces from Crowded Attic Salvage Stickers, and drew in a few stitches (it was too thick to machine stitch).
Assembly line! Tulle, wooden button, lace, snaps, safety pins, and a computer generated and stitched sentiment was added. Fun times!
The ATC
The tins (turned into sewing kits for the teachers).
 

Supplies: 
Altoids: tins
Krylon: red spray paint
Triangle Crafts: Sophisticated Finishes Rust
Frances Meyer: Parquet Wood Paper
From My Stash: white cardstock, pattern form paper, red tulle, scissors charm, red cord, red rhinestone heart, snap, lace


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!



38 comments:

  1. AbsolutALTOIDly Brilliant Anita! You should write a book! (Oh, you nearly did, just in this post!xx) Simply stunning and so many brilliant touches. The T!mmy M!ni scissors - Genius! Holly wings - Brill!
    I love how you manage to create the extraordinary from the day to day AND are economic with your resources. Houston - You rock! OR should that be... You Rock, Paper, Scissors?

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  2. Anita, Anita, Anita! I'm already in bed for the night and now I'm wishing for hot chocolate and cookies. These tins are just precious. They are certain to be treasured by the recipients. Love the Timmy Scissors and the make shift wings. The cruise sounds like an absolute thrill of a lifetime! I'm with Anna. You rock! Best wishes, Yvonne

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  3. Omg, love what you made. I agree with the others that you are genius an you rock for sure! I love this tutorial very much. I have those scissors too, and now I know what to do with them! Stunning!!!

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  4. Анита, поздравляю! Потрясающий мастер-класс! И как всегда отличная идея!
    Anita, congratulations! The stunning master class! And as always a great idea!

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  5. Dang girl! No wonder you're tired! These altered tins are A-dorable. LOVE the mini-t!m scissors. You are too clever for words.

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  6. Me encanta te quedo super bonito!!!!
    Me a gustado mucho el detalle de las tijeras...

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  7. WOW wow wow! This is absolutely wonderful, Anita. I love how this turned out and thank you so much for sharing how you did this!

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  8. WOW, está increible!! A parte del preciosos resultado, el paso a paso es genial, muy bien explicado. Me ha encantado el detalle del embossing del charm.
    It's Wonderfull!! Great job!, hugs

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  9. Fantabulous Girl!!! I love your tutorials! Those mini Tim Tonics are genius!

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  10. I absolutely love your ATC! I have the dress form die so I'm going to have to give a try at this. Love those scissors too.

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  11. Killer project, Anita! The tiny tonic scissors are hliarious.... I love the way your mind works!

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  12. Fabulous altered tin Anita and very creative wings too, great idea. Love the scissors and embellishments. Thanks so much for joining in the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge. Tracy x

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  13. WOW, Anita!!! AMAZING project AND ambitious! They are going to love their gifts! Thanks for an awesome tutorital! Hugs, Marcy (ADORE the scissors!)

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  14. These are completely & utterly GORGEOUS!!!!!! I've been oohing & aahing over every detail. The scissors are AWESOME.

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  15. This tin is amazing! I love all the little details such as the lace and the pin on the spool.. The scissors are just too cute and the idea of holly for wings is just brilliant. This is such a beautiful little keepsake box. Thanx for sharing and the inspiration. I love it! :)

    KimMJ
    bast830@comcast.net

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  16. Wow, georgeous (also tutorial is amazing)! I think teachers will be very happy!
    Hugs from Slovenia!

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  17. Love the tutorial - this is just the cutest thing ever!!

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  18. wowser...this totally rocks! great tut! luv the Timmy Scissors! way fun!

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  19. One word........FABEROOONIE!!!

    Kazxx

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  20. Such a cool project, the wings & scissors is brilliant.

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  21. My favorite part of this amazing creation are those red handled scissor...the attention to detail is just amazing!

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  22. Love Love Love the sewing kit, so stinkin cute!!!
    hugs Lynn

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  23. Anita, your altered tins are absolutely adorable! I love everything about them...all the detail, WOW! Love your tutorial, too! Thanks so much! I actually found 2 of those scissors at Simon Says just now...so I bought them! They are too cute and I LOVE how you colored them! REALLY CUTE AND CREATIVE project!!! Thanks for sharing your art with us at Simon Says Stamp and Show. <3 Candy

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  24. This is fantastic, those little scissors are fab!just love this!hugs trace x

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  25. Oh my WOW! These altered tins are AMAZING! So detailed - so creative - so original... And your step-by-step is awesome too! Thanks for sharing your amazing project with us at Simon Says Stamp and Show! Ellen :)

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  26. These are absolutely amazing Anita! I love the tiny Tim scissors you made. So very clever. I hope those teachers appreciate all the love and work that went into these lovely gifts. What a treasure!

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  27. Anita, this is so creative! Such a graceful kit for a present, so amazing! Loved. Truly loved. Thanks for sharing!

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  28. Oh Anita... I Love your Altered Tins! They are Perfection in Every way.
    Thank You for Visiting and Your Sweet Comments! I am your Newest Follower!
    Hugs
    Jill

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  29. Thkse littlealtered tins and the scissors just TICKLE ME!!!! LUV LUV LUV this tutorial......TFS
    Your newest follower....
    Poshcreations

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  30. i just recently bought myself a few of those little siccors , not nowing what to do with it yet but i had to have them ...they are so cute...but now i now !!!! awesome idea,and the way you've embossed them brilliant. i still have a little thin saved from cough drops found on a fleemarket , thinking that may be handy someday...so thanks for this awesome inspiration, sjimmie from holland.

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  31. OMG, these are fantastical, Anita!!! I would be thrilled to receive one of these ... the teachers will be over-the-moon when they receive 'em! WoW, this has to be one of the best. altered. tins. evuh!

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  32. this is such a fun project!! love it all!! great idea :) lainey x

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  33. Absolutely too cool! Love EVERYTHING about it. You are so creative. Thank you so much for the step-by-step!

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  34. Hi Anita, You really outdid yourself this time! Love the ATCs & the tins so much, especially those tiny scissors. It is always a pleasure to look at what you have created.

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  35. I absolutely love your altered sewing tins. So much detail and texture!! Thanks for entering this for the Stamp Man Challenge.
    Siobhan

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  36. Oh my goodness. You have some lucky teachers in your neighborhood. Great work!

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