A Tutorial and A Tip....

I had to purchase a new can opener for our kitchen and I am very picky when it comes to this kitchen utensil. I have to have something that is very easy to use and I cannot stand an electric can opener that stands out on my counter. When I went to my favorite kitchen store in Athens, the lady recommended the Rosle can opener. What sold me on this can opener was the fact that it made a clean cut on the tin cans. As an artist and one who likes to recycle this sold the can opener for me. The can opener is a little pricey, but it is very easy to use and the tops pop right off and the edges of my cans are as smooth as the edges of any other surface! This leads right into my project..... I took my tin can, sanded it down with sand paper and painted it with three different colors as shown. Then using my matte medium I attached my vintage papers to the surface of the tin can rubbing the papers into the grooves. After drying I used china markers and oil pastels to enhance my colors. I then decided to add a few ink stamps of believe, dream and postal stamps. To finish off my surface I used a transparent red iron oxide over the whole surface both outside and inside of the tin can.

At this point I had to add my embellishments. I took a wooden star, painted it red and used a black china marker to enhance the edges. I attached a black button, twig and raffia to the star and then attached all to the tin.

I added four red balls to the bottom for feet. I took my dremel and drilled two holes in the side and two holes in my stick for the handle. I then took my wire, beads and stick and formed the handle for the tin. To finish my tin can I added fibers and ribbon to the side for embellishments.