Vintage Baby Gift Tin Tutorial

I really appreciate what blogging has done for me!  I feel as though it makes me be more craftier and try new things.  Now today, I have a tutorial for everybody.  It all started when I was searching through my random stuff in my room and found this Christmas tin container thing.  I don't use it very much, so I figured that I should cover it somehow and use it as a gift tin.  My first thought was to make it a "Happy Birthday!" tin, but then I thought it would be fun to make a baby vintage look one, that goes perfect with some cards I've made before, that I had really fun with.

1.  Start with an empty tin that you have just sitting around taking up space . . . or go to a thrift store and get one for cheap.

2. Get a color of your choice of paint to apply to the tin.

3. Let the paint partially dry, leaving it just a little damp.

4. If you would like, now add accents with a different color to the paint.  If you have light paint, use a darker color for accents, and if you have a dark paint, use a lighter color as the accent color.

To get the effect I have here, I first put brown paint into the white to get a brown/tan color.  I let that dry all the way, and then put streaks of the brown paint in to get the streaky dark and light colors.

5.  Now, if you have paint in either your lid or your tin, use a wet paper towel to wipe it out.  You want your tin to look nice both inside and out, since you will be giving it to somebody.

6. Now, if you haven't already, choose paper to go with your tin and paint colors.  Cut out the desired size.  I chose a piece that was a bit shorter than two of the sides in width.  For this vintage look, I sand all my pieces of paper.  Now you get to use mod podge!  Mod podge down your piece of background paper.

7. Find all the other pieces of paper you want to put on.  I have a heart, a picture of a vintagey-looking baby in a cradle with a little angel standing beside it, and a piece of paper that has a message, saying "Just For Baby!"  I used the type-writer to write my message for a more vintage look.  Mod podge all these pieces down where you want them to go.

8. Mod podge the whole outside of the tin, to give it the same feel - it'll look and feel better.  Now would be the time to add any decorations to the cover of the tin, but I just chose to keep it plain.  Modge podge the cover, also.  Let the mod podge dry.

9.  Add any embellishments you want.  I tied a couple strands of twine around the tin, added a flower with a button in its center, and a button that looks like a scissor.

The look of the twine in the back - it was layed over each other in parts.

9.  Fill your tin with goodies for the person who's going to receive it.  If you have a baby tin, fill it with little pairs of shoes, hats, hair clips (I sale  both of the kinds pictured below, if you're interested), or baby toys.  For a birthday or holiday gift, fill it with appropriate items.  This would work great for a valentines gift!

I hope you have enjoyed:)

Please email me pictures here if you make a tin!  I would love to see them:)