Got these cute rectangular tins EONS ago; when we were still doing primarily primitives in our store in Hillsboro. I think they had repro vintage laundry detergent labels on them. They were on clearance and super cheap, so I bought a CASE of them; in sets of 3 graduated sizes. The smallest about the size of a box of band-aids.
I did sell a few of them ‘as purchased’ in a little laundry vignette in the store with old wash tubs, wash boards, old clothespins etc. (the above three are currently at Stars)
STILL had a lot of them left. So I made primitive tea stained labels to put on some of them to sell alongside the vintage bottles that I similarly labeled. (photo from Stars 2010)
You can see the can a little better in this picture. So I did that with a bunch of them and sold them as such. Then I started working on more of them and got as far as covering the original label with dark brown or tea stained paper; then I stopped. Recently found that box of them; and with those ‘blank canvases’ made these new altered versions:
So I dug through my piles of scrapbook paper and embellishments and started layering stuff on!
even did the sides of some of them!
And some had to be covered on the backside too because they were all scratched up.
From my previous experience with selling these in our store, I knew that people would HAVE to take the lids off. That’s the first thing they did when they would pick them up to look at them. Take the lid off. Even though they are obviously EMPTY. It’s just human nature. We want to SEE what’s inside. But the lids were a very snug fit and it took time to get them back on. Hence, at the end of every day at the store, I had to walk around and puts the lids back on all the tins! sigh. Since I can’t ‘be there’ to replace the lids at the malls, and don’t want them to ‘go missing’ (you’d be amazed at what ‘walks out’ of those places!?!) I GLUED them on when I started this project! (which does NOT necessarily guarantee that I WON’T find them with the lids taken off!) double sigh!
I just sat at my coffee table in front of the TV one evening, glue bottle in hand, and altered away! (Aleen’s tacky glue is the ONLY glue I use!)
The ‘fauxen’ (faux frozen!) Charlotte’s are ones I molded with Sculpey clay. Bought the mold to make them on etsy.
The moon face is molded clay too. (Got this mold at the craft store) The key is from a pack designed for paper crafts; flat on the back side so they glue down nicely.
And the top of that one.
Another face from the same mold set. Embossed butterfly bought in a package at craft store. You’ll notice that I also used these as wings for some of the Charlottes.
And another flat back key.
Vintage looking photos from an embellishment pad. TONS of great stuff in that thing!
Bingo card from the same pad. Tiny clay moon face on butterfly.
These particular crowns are made from a paper die cut. (not a die cut MACHINE; don’t have one of those YET! But the little single ones you can buy at the craft store)
Another (smaller!) Charlotte. I used my Ralph Lauren tobacco glaze to ‘antique’ the Charlottes and moon faces.
The biggest Charlotte of the bunch. These wings I cut myself from scrap paper.
The top.
Pink!
Vintage dictionary page is from an actual old dictionary. I use the paper from it a LOT. Really inexpensive to buy at a thrift store. Another ‘flat back’ key. The vintage post card images are cut from a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper covered with them.
Top.
Half a Charlotte??? Well, I didn’t have enough clay left to make a whole one and I didn’t want to waste that last little bit of it! (what can I say? Waste not, want not!)
Top.
Bird cage die cut from an embellishment pack.
Top.
Just layers of papers and a single embellishment.
Top. ALL the tops have at least a strip of paper on them. I only took pictures of the tops that I added MORE than just the paper to.
Another vintage look picture from the pad.
Top.
Funny cartoon image from the embellishment pad.
And another one of those flat keys. Now that I’ve actually USED the keys, I’m wishing that I had bought MORE of them!
But more often that not, I buy stuff like that ‘when it catches my eye’ and it’s sometimes YEARS before I actually USE it. And by then, if I decide I want MORE, they don’t have them anymore?!?! But maybe that’s a GOOD thing!
I did all of these in one evening, in front of the TV.
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