Tart Tin Easter Baskets by Ranjini Malhotra

See all our projects using Tart Tins by clicking on the link at the top of the page!


Spring is in the air and today we have these super sweet glittered Tart Tin Easter Baskets by Ranjini Malhotra . . .

Remember the lovely Christmas Garland the design team created for Jenni back in December? At the time, I seized the idea to spray paint a Tart Tin to use in my ornament and the thought occurred to me how darling the tins would look done up in paint and glitter, as wee easter baskets. (And these would work beautifully for every imaginable holiday - red glitter for Valentine's Day, orange for Halloween, etc. )

This was very simple to do. All I did was spray paint the tins using Krylon paint. I didn't have any lilac colored spray paint so I used a generic pink as the base coat. When the paint dried, I used Martha Stewart Crafts Glittering Glue (I love this because it comes with a built-in brush applicator) and applied it liberally on the outside of the tart tins. 

Then I glittered up the tins with Martha Stewart iridescent glitter in Bubble Gum. A tip for the glittering part is to cut a solo cup in half, dump out the glitter into the cup, and dip the tart tin into the solo cup, twisting it around so that glitter adheres to all the gluey surfaces, nooks and crannies. Once you've glittered it up to your satisfaction, set it aside to dry. After it dries, punch holes in the sides, create a handle from a pipe cleaner, and tie on buttons and twine. Add a few JBS Vellum Butterflies and the basket is spring-ready, to display, gift or hang on an easter tree!

The candies are shown for display, I don't recommend using these for actual food unless the candies are wrapped. The wee ceramic bunnies are from a collection of figurines that come in the boxes of Red Rose Tea that I drink. I hope this has inspired you to break out your spray paint and glitter - you'll love the ease of this project, and the gorgeous results!

Beautiful!  Thanks for the inspiration Ranjini!

Bluebird of Spring: Crafty Tutorial

See what Leah made with our Chipboard, Tart Tins, and other crafty goodies!  This is a wonderful project for a gift, springtime decoration, or class!  Complete supplies used are listed below.  Thank you Leah for giving us this detailed tutorial!

With March approaching, most people's thoughts in the United States turn to spring. Wouldn't it be fun to chase away a friend's winter blues with these sweet spring wishes?

Supplies that you'll need:

• Jenni Bowlin Bird Chipboard
• Jenni Bowlin Chipboard Flowers
• Jenni Bowlin Tart Tins
• Vellum Butterflies in Yellow
• Pearl and Rhinestone Charms in Cream
• Jenni Bowlin/Ranger paints in Stick Candy, Malted Milk, and Soap Powder
• Jenni Bowlin/Ranger inks in Stick Candy, Malted Milk, Speckled Egg, and Brown Sugar
• Ink Blending Tool
• Ranger Crackle Accents
• Crackle medium for paints
• Ribbon 
• small stick to attach your butterfly to
• small piece of floral foam, floral moss, and spanish moss - all available in the floral aisle of your craft store
• small twig to attach to the base {optional}
• heat gun, hot glue gun and glue sticks

For the bird, you'll need the Malted Milk paint, crackle medium and Soap Powder paint:

Give the small chipboard bird a coat of the Malted Milk paint and allow it to dry thoroughly. Feel free to use your heat gun, but keep it as a distance. The heat can sometimes bubble the paint as it dries:

Apply a nice coat of the crackle medium and let it dry. The less you push the medium around when you're spreading it on, the better crackles you'll get on your finished piece. Allow it to dry. If it's wet at all when you apply the overcoat, it won't crackle.

Spread a nice, thick coat of paint on top of the dry crackle. Make sure you have plenty of paint on your brush and spread evenly - you can't go back over your work much, because the crackle medium can cause the paint to clump.

Watch it crackle as it dries. I don't like using a heat gun to dry this, unless I keep the gun well away from the piece, so that the paint won't bubble.

Distress your chipboard bird by dabbing your finger in Malted Milk ink, and swiping it across the bird in the same direction as the crackles.

Finish the edges with the same method, using the Brown Sugar in.

Attach the wing using a hot glue gun, and add a rhinestone for the eye. then set it aside to create the base, and "nest" for your bird.

Apply Stick Candy paint to the small chipboard flower from the package. Once it dries, apply a coat of Crackle Accent. Set it aside to dry.

Apply a coat of malted milk paint to the tart tin and allow it to dry.

Distress the tin using the same method as the bird, using the Malted Milk, Brown Sugar and Speckled Egg inks. Just gently press your finger in the ink pad and brush across the tin. You can wipe excess off using a paper towel if you need to! Allow the ink to dry.

Glue a small piece of the floral foam to the bottom of the tin, using the hot glue gun.

Hide the foam by gluing a piece of the Spanish moss to cover. Cut off any flyaway pieces.

Press bird into the foam and add hot glue to hold.

Once the crackle on the flower for the base is dry, distress it first with the Stick Candy ink, and then with Brown Sugar ink.

Add some floral moss on top and glue.

To make the banner piece, curl the paper around the edges.

Distress with Brown Sugar ink and the ink blending tool.

Glue the tart tin to the base, and add the stick on the side. Embellish your bird by adding the tag, bow, pearls, and mounting the butterfly on the stick behind the bird. 

All finished and ready to give to a friend or enjoy yourself!

I hope you enjoyed this sweet little project! Leah

Tart Tins & Number Cards Garland

Today I'd like to share this tart tin and number card garland I made. It's strung on 22 gauge metal wire, which is thin and easy to work with. I've strung it between two silver candlesticks and tied gray grosgrain ribbon on the ends to finish it off.

I also added in vintage metal marquee letters. I found mine on Ebay. You can also find them at Lowe's and places like that although you may want to rough them up with sandpaper to give them more of a vintage feel. And printing your own is definitely an option. From this photo you can't tell if they're metal or paper so I think printing them would be just as cute. The size of the letters are 2" wide by 3 1/4" high. I used an initial from each of our family members and the number 4 representing the number in our family (and because I didn't have a metal J for Johnson, ha). You could also do your complete last name if it's a shorter name or maybe a special word for you like your One Little Word for 2012.

I layered Jenni's chipboard buttons, regular buttons, doily flowers, brads, and beads inside each of my tart tins. I stamped the seal stamp in several happy colors to put behind each tart tin. I cut each of the number cards into banner shapes. I placed the old time girl photo chipboard on top of a button on the office chipboard piece so it would really stand out. It's fun to experiment with different "levels" or depths of your embellishments inside the tins.

This is my favorite one. I layered Jenni's white beads, her old time photo chipboard, and a vintage milk cap. The Old Time Photo chipboard has foam squares under it.

So here's how I did it:

You'll need a hammer, an awl (mine is a paper awl, a regular woodworking awl would be fine too), 22 gauge wire (something you can bend but will hold it's shape for the garland), pliers are helpful for pulling the wire through the tart tin hole, and a self healing mat or a piece of scrap wood to protect your surface.

Hold the awl as shown and give it a few taps with your hammer on the inside bottom of the rim. The tart tins are sturdy but piercing the hole with an awl is very easy. Place a hole on each side of the tart tin. Do the same thing for the metal letters.

Stamp the seals and cut them out. I used JBS Chili Powder, Weather Vane, and Stick Candy ink. I also used yellow ink from my stash for two of the seals. I used extra large glue dots to stick my tart tins to the seals. I used an extra seal on each end of the garland.

It's easiest to string the garland on one long piece of wire instead of connecting each piece with a small wire. This is why it's important to punch the holes on the tart tins near the very bottom of the tin. Cut about a 4 foot long piece of wire (that is if you're doing the same amount of letters and banners as I did) and begin stringing you elements. That will give you enough to have extra wire on each end to tie onto things and it's much easier to cut off extra than have to go back and re-string the pieces.

In order to get your chipboard pieces and milk caps to lie flat in the tin on top of the wire, you'll need to stack a few adhesive foam squares or circles on either side of the wire.

Then start embellishing and layering your circular pieces and that's it!

Supplies:
Tart Tins
Vintage Number Card Set
Chipboard Buttons - Office & Old Time Photos
Doily Flowers Cream
Decorative Brads - Delicate
Pearl & Rhinestone Charms  - Cream & Black
Vintage Sew On Buttons - Orange, White, & Cream
Clear 3 x 3 Seal Stamp
Ranger JBS Dye Stamp Pads - Chili Powder, Stick Candy, & Weather Vane

Christmas Garland #7 by Ranjini Malhotra

When Doris came up with the idea of the entire design team creating individual pieces to be contributed to our Christmas garland, I thought it was a fabulous idea. I've loved seeing all of the girls' gorgeous pieces and it's been a reminder of how versatile and lovely Jenni Bowlin products are!

I wanted to use Jenni's tart tins and a Christmas themed bingo place card and concocted this piece. I chose the "Give" Bingo Card and added the Santa image and bell because it called to mind the Salvation Army Santas with their bells that collect for the needy during the holiday season and I love the giving aspect of the holidays.

The Santa card came from Jenni's new holiday collection papers, and I added it to the top half of the place card, after adding double stick tape and red glass glitter to edge the top of the card. I also backed the card with cardstock so as to prevent the place card from folding in the middle where the prescored fold is.

Glitter and foil are a must for Christmas, so I used pretty foil bits as well. But the real fun came about when I got out my can of red spray paint and painted the tart tin. I loved the option of custom coloring the tin so much that I can't wait to do the same for future holidays -- I can visualize lovely pastel painted tins all done up with clear glitter for Easter! Tip for spray painting, set the tin inside a shallow cardboard box in a well ventilated area. I used Krylon Short Cuts in Red Pepper, which is a 3 oz. can of spray paint I found at Joann's for $3.99. Use a light hand, hold it atleast 6" away from the tart tin and spray light coats waving the can back and forth as you spray until you get full coverage. It dries pretty quickly. I sprayed the inside first, then turned it over and sprayed the outside and let it sit to dry.

I also found a whole package of real silver bells - 12 for 50 cents (!) at my local thrift store and spray painted the metal bell as well. I attached the tin to the card by using my manual craft drill to drill a hole in the tin and anchoring it with a brad to the card so as not to worry about it breaking or falling off the card. I added one of Jenni's chipboard buttons in the center of the tin to cover up the brad and a white seam binding bow and baker's twine for hanging.

I can't wait to see the entire garland with all the pieces hanging side by side! In the meantime, you can view all of the individual garland projects by clicking on the header "christmas garland" at the top menu of the blog.

Guest Star Kim Jeffress!

Today we have a feast of inspiration from Guest Star Kim Jeffress! Kim brings us three layouts that artfully mix two of our recent lines, "Haven" and "Be Our Guest," along with an display piece and a charming set of refrigerator magnets featuring our Tart Tins and Reader Chipboard Buttons. Thanks so much for the inspiration Kim! For even more inspiration from Kim, be sure to visit her blog, Glass Half Full.

Banners and Flags!

Banners and flags have been hot, hot, hot!  Here are a few ways to use and make banners, perhaps in some unexpected ways:

Keisha decorated Vintage Wooden Spools with homemade flags made from Tea Towel cardstock, Rhinestone Bow Embellishments, punched flowers, alpha stickers, and Pearl Flowers, and Vellum butterflies.  They were strung on a gorgeous piece of ribbon.

Jing-Jing Nickel created this wonderful layout by trimming her photos to fit our new Flag Banner Chipboard shapes:

Supplies: Flag Chipboard Small, Vintage Sew-On Buttons, Pearl and Rhinestone Charms, Rub-on single Girl, Alpha Stickers, Home Sweet Home Cardstock, Sewing Room Cardstock, Hers Cardstock, Mini Be My Guest papers

Betsy used a happy little banner to top off this little photo display:

supplies: Flag Banner Stickers, Mini Flag chipboard, Tart Tin, Bingo card, vintage game card.

Stay tuned for more banner inspiration!