Snowman Diorama Christmas Tree Ornament – Altered Tins

Some of my ideas are done and dusted in a couple of days (allowing for drying) while others linger, as was the case with these altered diorama tins.

They started off as below, bought from eBay with a single bid of £1.80 plus P & P, so they cost me 58p each, which isn’t too bad, considering the price of tins at the moment.  I took a gamble on their depth, so was well chuffed when they arrived.

The first thing I did was stick a small pendant bail on the back of each tin before I spray painted them. 

I sprayed them with a white paint first to ensure all the print was completely covered and then red to give them a true Christmassy flavour.

Any little bits missed by the paint was covered using a red Sharpie pen.

When the outsides were dry, I cut a template and then used scraps of small print, Christmas design paper on the inside, saving paper on the one side where the snow was going to be.

I added faux stitching, using a black fine liner pen around all the edges.

I used Hobbycraft, white, Superlight Air Drying Clay (£1 for a 30g pack) for the snow.  It’s a weird constancy, a bit like chewing gum, but for this and my other tin and walnut projects it’s perfect as it dries overnight.

I prepared the wooden houses beforehand, (The Works, 20 pack for £1) ……

…… sticking tiny scraps of paper on the back over the windows and hearts, then painting them white, before adding snowy details using white Americana Writer and a little doodled outlining.

I put a bead on the back of the houses to add a little dimension, before gluing them in the snow/tin using B-7000 glue.

I took off the wooden base off the bristle brush trees and cut the bristles flat at the back, so that they would lie flat once glued into the back of the tin.  I also added glue to the exposed metal wire of the tree before sinking it in the snow.

This was followed by the tiny Fimo snowman, again made in advance, for this and other ideas.

When all the bits and pieces had dried, I added some more white Americana Writer to the clay for extra texture, as well as to hide any gaps to the sides due to any shrinkage of the clay, followed by a light dusting of ultra fine translucent glitter.

While the one side was drying, I used my trusty old Dymo label maker to punch out all the wording on a blue tape, which I then mat and layered very finely on silver mirror card.  

I then added various small confetti snowflakes here and there, some with tiny silver flat back domes in the centre.

Next, the front of the tins, the metal tag I wanted to use was a little bit too wide, but fitted much better after I carefully trimmed off the outer edge.

Then the fiddle fart of various size and textured snowflakes, a few tiny silver, flat backed domes and of course a scattering of three dot clusters made using a white Posca pen.

……. plus a silver thread cord  through the attached bail so the whole thing can be hung on a Christmas tree.

So that’s another set of tins done and dusted ………

…… and I’m really chuffed with how they came out.