The Fickle Hobbyist

I think it was last month that I was flipping through the latest Ballard Designs catalog and came across the cutest canisters.

I thought “Ooh, that’s exactly what I need for Max’s food!”  I mean, after all, Tupperware is super functional, but so NOT chic.  Of course, when I looked at the price tag on these canisters, I laughed.  $45?! You’ve got to be kidding me.

See, the reason I laughed is because I had two of these sitting upstairs.

Perhaps you do too?  You know you’ve all seen these.  They’re the tins of popcorn that kids covet at Christmas time.  (at least my kids do)  They come with the three flavors inside.  I had had the idea to use the tins for the tons of Littlest Pet Shop toys we have lying around, but when I saw the food canister, I figured I could spare one for that.

The first thing I did was wash that bad boy out.  Whatever caramel popcorn was left inside, had melted into one big chunk of grossness.  When it was washed and dried, I used a 220 grit sanding sponge and took the shine off of the paint.  Again, I washed the outside and took it outdoors to paint it.  I gave it several light coats of Rustoleum Universal Spray Paint in satin white.

Then I created a text image in Photoshop and printed it out.  (if you’re interested in re-creating this, here is the image I used.)

I think it would have been MUCH easier and quicker had I had a Silhouette for this project, but alas… I do not yet have one.  So I had to resort to tracing paper and paint.

The tracing paper I used was something I picked up in the fabric department of Hobby Lobby but works on all surfaces.

I cut out a piece and taped both the tracing paper and the image to the bucket.

I used a pen so that it ensured the transfer.  After tracing the image I was left with this.

I took some black acrylic paint to fill in the tracing.  I suppose I could have sealed it with something, but I didn’t figure it would get a lot of handling on the word part, so I left it as is.

So I’m not the neatest painter, but I can live with this.

It is definitely much better than the Tupperware container that held Max’s food before.

I think it’s super cute!  Now I just have to do the same treatment and paint “Toys” on the other one.

-Autumn

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