Monday, December 12, 2011

DIY Decorative Chalkboard Tin

Today brings another post in my series, A Season of Serenity (Now) at Home. We all love homemade gifts, but it can be time-consuming (and expensive!) to make gifts for everyone. Today, I'll show you how you can easily repurpose an ugly candy or cookie tin and make a gift that will look pretty for Christmas...and the rest of the year too! This Decorative Chalkboard Tin was so easy to make, and inexpensive.



Here's what you need to get started:

-An ugly cookie or candy tin (I spent $3.50 on one from Big Lots)
-Spray paint in a fun color (I used Krylon's Ocean Breeze)
-Chalkboard Spray Paint
-Painter's Tape
-Silhouette Vinyl (optional)

1. This wasn't a particularly ugly tin, but a little busy for my taste. My first step was to tape off the cute top border on the larger half of the tin. I really pressed down on the edges to keep the paint from bleeding through.

2. I also taped around the inside of the top half of the tin to keep paint off of anything that might touch food.

3. Following the directions on the spray paint bottles, I painted my tin and allowed for drying time.


4. Following Krylon's instructions, I cured the chalkboard surface by rubbing some chalk across the chalkboard-painted area.

5. (Optional) I used my Silhouette to cut a vinyl "frame" for the top of the tin--a handy spot to write all sorts of messages.
























Because I had all of the supplies on hand, I only spent $3.50 on this gift. Vinyl can be pricey, so you could always stencil your own design on the top with some craft paint to save money. I added some tissue paper and wax paper and filled the tin with my homemade Nutella Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread after writing a quick Christmas greeting with a chalkboard pen.


And I love that the tin can easily be used for other things after the holidays have passed...I filled mine with ribbon to give you an idea. You could also use it for tea or cocoa packets, photos, kids' mementos, stickers, jewelry, buttons, craft supplies--there are so many options!























This would be a fun gift for a teacher, neighbor, or friend. If you want to find other creative tips and tricks to bring some Serenity to your Christmas season, please stop by and check out the Season of Serenity (Now) at Home series!

Linking to Centsational GirlPositively SplendidThrifty Decor ChickThe CSI ProjectPS Homemade Gift Exchange

If you liked this post, or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+. 

22 comments:

  1. Love this idea, Amanda! I can see it being perfect for gift-giving all year long.

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  2. Absolutely love this idea! The tin is also a little busy for my taste, but this is perfect!

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  3. This is so pretty Amanda! I love the blue you chose & its such a sweet idea :-) I might be trying this soon. :-)

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  4. Great idea! Love, love, love this! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. This is a great idea, Amanda. It's especially nice that you could give this filled with goodies and the new owner could re-use it to hold anything!

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  6. This is fantastic! Really really a great idea :)

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  7. Very cute idea! I wish is warm around here, I would be spray painting up a storm!:)

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  8. Amanda this is so cute! I love that you can buy up all the not so cute tins after Christmas and make them really cute this way:)

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  9. Amanda, I LOVE this. Fantastic. What a great idea. I am now on an ugly tin hunt ;)

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  10. Great idea! I can't wait to try it! Thanks :)

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  11. I absolutely love some cookie tins, especially vintage ones, but many of them can be extremely ugly. I never would have thought to paint over the ugliness and transform them into a super cute repurposable (because of the chalkboard paint) container. I love what you did - if I receive any of these I'm totally going to use this as inspiration to change them.

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  12. Super cute idea! I always end up with some tins after Christmas that I don't know what to do with. Leave it to you to find a cute way to repurpose.

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  13. I decided to stop by your blog for a visit and I'm glad I did. I really like this idea and will be looking for tins soon!

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  14. Very cute, Amanda! You're ideas are cute and practical at the same time. Definitely keep you on the must read list!


    Keep up the great work!

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  15. Wow, I love these! I'm going to be keeping my eyes open for some tins in my local dollar store :)

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  16. Are you kidding me? Cutest thing ever. I had my eye on a can of that the other day. Totally should have bought it. Argh.

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  17. What a great idea to freshen up an ugly ol' tin! It has endless possibilities too! Love that!

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  18. I absolutely LOVE this! I'm putting it in my crafts folder to do in my spare time :D .

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  19. What a great idea! I'm slightly (understatement) addicted to chalkboards and I have a dozen zillion Christmas tins! Thanks for the inspiration!!

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  20. I know I'm a couple of years behind on this, but I have a question that I don't think was asked in the comments -- do you have any trouble with the paint flaking/chipping with normal use? Like, do you need to rough up the tin at all before painting? (I haven't used that Krylon -- your blue -- before so it might be part of the instructions.)

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  21. Such a cute idea for holiday gifts, and so simple!

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