Altered Powdered Milk Tin

One of the challenges to celebrate 5000 members over on JJAMMMA (Junk journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art) is to create a piece of free standing altered art.  I started with an empty powdered milk tin and ended up with a storage jar for brushes, decorated suitably using one of the new IndigoBlu stamp sets: Artist Studio.

I covered the tin and lid in white tissue paper, gluing the pieces firmly into place and sealing over the top with Mod Podge (matte).

Next followed a couple of coats of Amsterdam white gesso, leaving the top of the tin unpainted so as not to interfere with the fitting of the lid if I wanted to use it; in the end I chose not to.

I measured and tore a piece of Chinese rice paper to fit round the tin, then stamped onto the smooth side using most of the Artist Studio stamps (IndigoBlu) and Jet Black Archival ink.

I also stamped one of the new Collector's Edition stamps (No. 20) onto another piece so that I could experiment with adding colour.  First I tried various Amsterdam Acrylic paints on the back as well as an Ecoline watercolour pen.  The paint was more successful, as the watercolour bled on the rough side and also caused the rice paper to tear.

Once dry, I glued the rice paper onto a piece of copy paper (stamped side up) which intensified the colour of the paint below.  Unfortunately the Ecoline pen was not colour fast and smeared a little.  The images were sealed with matte medium.

Once completely dry,  I decided to give the Ecoline pen another attempt; this time on the front.  No more smearing or colour bleed where the rice paper was well sealed.

Having started to paint on the back of the rice paper using Amsterdam acrylics and a fine brush,  I decided to swap to using Ecoline pens on the top of the images instead, as that would allow me to colour the tin far more quickly.  The rice paper was glued firmly in place round the tin and set to one side to dry thoroughly.

Unfortunately, my sealing wasn't perfect.  As you will see, when I coloured the images using my Ecoline pens, some areas of colour did bleed where I hadn't coated the rice paper with enough matte medium.  I persevered however.

To neaten up at the top and bottom of the tin, I added a thin strip of washi tape from the Aristocrat set by Tim Holtz idea-ology.  I also added two pen nib charms which I had received in happy mail (using heavy gel medium) over the worst area of colour bleed.  As this was immediately next to the ink bottle, they seemed an appropriate way to hide the OOPS.

Maybe it's not perfect, but I like my altered powdered milk tin and I have learnt some valuable lessons for the next time that I try this technique.