Altered Game Tin

I made this tin lunch pail for my Grandma's birthday last month. It started as a plain miner's pail that I added paper, stamps and ribbon to. I then filled it with stamped game cards for dice games, dice, pens, paper pads(refillable), coins and poker chips. In this one box she has everything she needs to play 15 different games. The games vary from easy (my 3 year old played them) to moderately difficult (you need to focus, not visit) and everything in between. This way, wherever Grandma goes, she can play games with whoever is there. My son loves it so much that I'm thinking about making one for his upcoming birthday with tic-tac-toe, memory and things like that in it.

Sandscapes

You can make a nautical themed card without buying anything! Most people have balloons and white rice in their homes and that's what you'll need to do this project. Fill a balloon with about 1/2 to 3/4 C of rice (use a funnel) and tie it off without adding any air to it. Then gather:

4 1/4" x 3" piece of sand colored paper
Sand colored Ink (I used SU So Saffrom )
Rice filled Balloon


1. Squeeze the balloon to stretch the rubber and then ink it up on the ink pad. (The ink will come off with a Stampin' Scrub & Stampin' Mist so that it can be reused indeffinately.)


2. Stamp the inked balloon onto the paper, reinking every or every-other time you stamp. Cover the paper completely.


3. Cut the paper so that the 3" side becomes two pieces, each 1 1/2" x 4 1/4".


4. Tear the pieces across the top so that they have one rough edge. Make them curve slightly so that they have a natural roll to them. Stack them so that the bottom of the piece in back is hidden. Adhere to your card or scrapbook page.


To see how to watercolor the sea creatures on this card read the tutorial Watercoloring With Blender Pens.

Watercoloring With Blender Pens

This is really so easy that I can't believe I'm posting it. But, for those of you who don't even know what a Blender Pen is it may be eye opening! I'll show you the technique of watercoloring with a blender pen and then if you want to see the other technique on this card you'll need to read the tutorial Sandscapes. You'll need:

Blender Pens (aval in the Stampin' Up catalogue)
Stampin' Pastels
Stamped Line-art Image


1. Touch the tip of a blender pen to the desired pastel. If its a light color, you may need to slide the tip across the pastel to get more color. If its a darker color, just a touch should be good. You can always test on scrap paper first if you need to.


2. Start coloring the image. Don't use a whole lot of pressure, just go easy and color as if it were a marker. When the color fades out, go back to the pastels and reload the blender pen.


3. I chose to cut mine out because it was needed on the sandscape, but, most likely your image will be complete when the coloring is done.