Sunday, March 27, 2016

Star Wars altered tin

Hi All, I created another altered tin this past week, though this one is much less arty and way more just putting the elements together. I made it for a friend who likes Star Wars.
I started with a tin from The Hard Rock Café that housed a watch, because the Altoids tins were a little too small for all the elements I wanted to add. Here's the top of the tin:
 I covered the tin, inside and out with black tissue paper. The two circles on the top are actually buttons I bought at Hobby Lobby, I just happened to take out the pin backs. The "Star Wars" in the middle is actually part of the packaging from the stickers I used.
Inside top:
 These stickers are actually domed. It's hard to see in the picture, but that's why Han Solo has some glare. They are clear stickers that I picked up a few years ago at Walmart. I wanted them to stand out against the black tissue paper, so I put them on white cardstock and then cut them out and glued them to the tissue paper.
Inside bottom:
 On the left is an eraser of Kylo Ren (my friend informed me it's the new Darth Vader), a Darth Vader domed sticker, he's actually on a grey background and then some foam dots to stand out next to the other pieces, and a plastic Darth Vader. The eraser was in a puzzle pack from Target and the plastic Darth Vader was in an Easter pack from Target.

Bottom of tin:
Not a lot going on here, I just added the limited edition sticker and my information.

Like I said this isn't a very arty piece. I wanted to make one of my altered tins for a friend, but she's really into older computer/arcade games, Star Wars and some more geeky things. I wasn't sure she'd really like a more artsy tin. The only thing I had that was Star Wars were the domed stickers and then I couldn't find them, so almost didn't create this for her, when I was searching for something else, I found the stickers. At that time, I had already bought the pins, eraser and figurine that I was planning to give her anyway, so it worked out.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Skeleton Altered tin

I altered another Altoids tin for a swap. I had joined what was called a Handmade Etsy Swap, where you bought at least one thing off of Etsy. I really wanted to alter a tin for my partner. When I found out that she really liked skulls and Day of the Dead, I was a little stumped. Skeletons and Halloween are not something I'm really that into. I have joined a couple Halloween swaps in the past, mainly to push my comfort zones and to make something. So, I dug out what little I had and it all sat on my floor for way too long.
I finally ended up with this:
 I covered the tin with black tissue paper. The front has been sprayed with a glimmer mist, I know you can't tell, but it was a teal and gold. I added the punched bones for a frame and could not figure out what to put in the middle. I originally was going to use a plastic glow-in-the-dark skull, but the glue wouldn't stick to the tin (I think it was because I was too impatient in letting it dry.). I had found this skeleton 'cameo' in my stash, pretty sure I got it in a swap and wanted to use it, but could not figure out how. The frame she is in, is from a set of wedding picks. It had a wedding cake sticker on it and I found that the cameo fit in perfectly, so I took out the sticker and glued her in. I LOVE how the front turned out.
The inside, I still love, but not as much as the front. I had painted the inside black, because I accidentally cut the paper a little too small. I really like this paper with the ghostly branches on the sides. The skeleton on the left side was originally a keychain, and I thought it kinda looked like something she had on her favorites on Etsy, so I was just going to give it to her, but that wasn't as fun. It's what got the whole tin rolling. The other two skeletons on the left side are stickers, that I carefully cut around, they did not want to stick to the paper and kept peeling off, so I finally coated it with mod podge. The two dancing skeletons were buttons that I took the backs off of, and the skull at the top is a charm I had gotten in another swap.
I didn't take a picture of the back, but it's pretty boring, I just put some skull punches and a piece of paper saying handmade by me.
My partner sent me an email saying she had gotten her package yesterday and that I "made the coolest little casket thing". I thought that was pretty good praise.