Upcycled Washi pen pots

While I was tidying up my craft nook, well my craft table that I decided I needed to do something to the tins I had been using as pen pots for the past few months. To be honest I think it was a way to get out of tidying the rest of the room but less said about that the better!

              So as I said I had saved and washed a couple of tins and one of those cardboard instant gravy pots ages ago and they had been sitting on my table naked for ages, so I collected up my washi tape and some garden twine and got to decorating them.

   All you need to do is was out your tin and dry, remove the lable and any sticky bits on the outside. I only use tins that have the pull type lid so you have a nice top to your pot. If you are doing these with or for children just watch the inner rim of the tin is not sharp.

For this pen pot I just used the black stripe, polkadot and gold Italian script washi tape which I just stuck directly to the tin then filled in the gaps using garden twine which I stuck to the tin using PVA glue. I just applied the PVA dirrectly to the tin surface then wrapped the twine around. The bow was made from a piece of the twine and then hot glued onto the front.

As the pen pot was going to get a lot of use I did glaze the Washi tape. You could use watered down PVA and it will seal the tape and give a nice shine to the pot too.

This was my cardboard gravy pot, I just covered the pot with PVA and then just wrapped the garden twine around and around from top to bottom. Looks rather expensive I think!

This pot was made in the same way as the first, using the blue black and black and white dot Washi tape which a black stripe piece in the middle. I used Creative Expressions black and white bakers twine this time instead or the garden twine.

I then added my favourite die cut at the moment to the middle of the pot after I had glazed it.

The die cut is a Spellbinders die but all sorts of things could be used. The persons name would be fun!

You can find all the things you need on the Fruit Pixie shop website, except the tins of course. You can find the -

Washi tape - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/washi-tape-625-c.asp

Bakers twine - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/creative-expressions-bakers-twine-black--white-50-yds-16055-p.asp

Spellbinders dies - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/spellbinders-dies-648-c.asp

So get your tins out of the recycle and make them into something useful. These would be great for back to school gifts full of crayons and pens, depending on their age. Or even new teacher gifts perhaps. As I said watch the sharpness of the inside ledge of the tin, the cardboard pots would be best for children to decorate.