way around the cookie tin

Today Cat decided to ruthlessly wake me up, at the crack of dawn. When I first sat at my desk, the sun was just sleepily coming out. It turned out to be a great time to finish up some pending projects, and though my day will be punctuated by nap times (thank you Goa for your siestas!), I’m extremely glad to be back on my crafting horse…  

Unfortunately, for all the good things I can say about Goa, shopping for artsy supplies, even in capital of the state, is more of a sad joke than anything else. That’s why I often have to get creative and find my way around this problem. 

I’ve been wanting to give our cookie tin a little makeover. In one of the tutorials, someone suggested using acrylic paint. All I can say – you may, if you don’t intend to touch the can afterwards. Paint will just peel off nicely from the metal surface, as soon as it dries. Believe me, I know, I have tried and I have learned.

Spray paint is and obvious choice, but in the whole city I found only few, rather unappealing colors. Finally I managed to get hold of the black one, and, in my excitement, got a little carried away - spraying everything I could lay my hands on. 

Second problem was Mod Podge, or lack thereof. I read somewhere, that mixing Fevicol with water gives good results.
Yes and no. Diluting the glue makes it easy to spread evenly, it does dry transparent and even gives paper a bit of gloss. It also mixes nicely with paints. From the other hand, drying takes forever so paper or fabric may become wavy in the process, plus the finish isn’t perfect. It dulls plastic and metal surfaces and even on paper is a little rough. Overall, it’s good to know but even better when you don’t have to use it.

With that said, I decided to give it a go while decorating my tin (and few other boxes). It worked well on smaller surfaces, which I could cover with few strokes of brush, on the bigger one it started to dull the colors slightly. Keeping in mind approaching monsoon, and all the humidity it brings along, I decided to give my creations an extra coat of liquid wood polish – another ingenious invention. Dries for hours, but it made my paper decorations waterproof, or so I hope.

All in all, though it’s not as easy, it can be done without proper equipment!

P.S.

I used printouts from Fifi Lapin , Marina Dieul and Gil Elvgren