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Wednesday 27 June 2012

Reusing Tin cans




The love of my life is also in love with cookies so we have an accumulating number of tin cans in the house. I loathe to throw these away because firstly, I love tin cans and secondly, they are great containers for small stuff. And since I've started crafting, they have been really nifty for keeping cut paper pieces, short wire ends, tools and more. 

However, I do not like the designs of these contemporary tin cans. So when I finally got the time, I hopped over Ace Hardware and got  a bottle of spray paint useable for metal for about 20aed or so. There are many colors available but I chose this lovely chocolate brown.



I live in a one bedroom apartment so I had to layer my tiled floor with tons of newspaper. Unfortunately, some paint still got in between the cracks. No worries though, a rag wet with white spirits helped me clean it off (fortunately too because I got some paint on a white leatherette foot stool - whew!). So, if you're doing this in an enclosed space, make sure things are properly covered, your windows are wide open (to let the fumes out) and if you have exhaust, you might as well open them. Better yet, do it outdoors if you can.

Before you start spraying, make sure your tin can is clean. I washed all my tin cans with soap and water and dried them with a clean rag before storing them. So before I sprayed it, I only quickly wiped it with a rag wet with alcohol and again let it dry first.

Spraying can be tricky but easy enough to do well with practice. My bottle of paint recommended spraying from 6-8 inches away, which I did until the can was evenly covered. Don't spray too much though or the paint will accumulate in an area and start to drip (my first can has several drips on one side).


Let it dry then spray another coat. Make sure to get in those grooves around the sides. 

It's not perfect but I have plenty more to practice on. Next time, I'll grab another color that will go with chocolate brown and stencil in a few designs or patterns. Good thing I've got plenty of tins to work on.


But even without extra design, this tin will look great on my craft shelf or as a gift box.

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