If you don't already know this about me, I am a sentimental girl. I love to let people know when they are loved, and even
how and why they are loved. Many years ago, I began writing a letter to my husband every year for Valentine's day. In it, I provided him a list of all of the reasons that I loved him. It was my way of letting him know how much all of the little things he does are appreciated.
As the girl's have gotten older, I have started writing them a letter as well. And they have joined in on the fun of the letter for their dad. Three years ago, they
made a video expressing the reasons they loved their dad. So cute and funny, and really, how have they changed so much in just three short years? Other years, I have made
the letter itself extra fancy and pretty. A lot of years, it is just simply been true feelings expressed in a typed up in an ordinary white paper letter. But the message is all the same. Stacy of
Not Just a Housewife asked me to join her this month for her Styled X3 series. Each month, she and two other bloggers style or craft with the same item she sends them and then they all share the different ways they used the items.
This month, Stacy sent us these
three metal tea tins. I was very pleased when they came because they are so functional and yet pretty. I came up with a whole bunch of functional uses for them and ways to alter them, but in the end, I decided to make them part of this year's I love you because Valentine's day gifts.
Using the same principals of
this technique, I aged the tins with toilet bowl cleaner. I will admit, it didn't age it a whole bunch, but I liked that it was less shiny and had a speckled look to it. I found it worked best when I laid it on newspaper, poured the gel on it and kept rolling it over every hour or so. I left the cleaner on for about 3.5 hours.
I added some ribbon, some baker's twine and a decorated tag to it and that was about all of the "crafting" side it needed. However, you can embellish and add as much or as little to it as you like.
I completed two of them for each of my daughters.
Then I got out some decorative paper, some stamps, scissors and punches. I made a bunch of different pieces using scissors and the punches. Some of them I left plain and some of them I stamped. I will continue to add my notes to each of them, writing around the stamped areas on the ones I stamped.
Then I will fold them over and drop them in the can. I will add some candy in there as well, close it up and it is all ready to be gifted to my girls.
Now pop on over to
Not Just a Housewife and to
DIY on the Cheap to see how the styled their tea tins. If you want to see another Valentine's Day idea, you can visit my
Rustic Wood Letters project.
Thanks so much for reading!
