February 4, 2007

The birthday gift to my shoe loving daughter

When my girl was three years old, she took off all her clothes and just put on her daddies big old shoes. I think that must have been the beginning of her love affair with shoes. The girl loves not just any shoes but designer shoes. She turns up her nose at what she calls "cheap" shoes or what I like to call "affordable" shoes. For her 19th birthday I thought I'd make this little altered tin to honor her love of shoes and to hold a gift card for her favorite store.

The outside of the tin:

The tin was first sanded to rough up the surface so the tin would hold the copper paint. The first layer of paint I used was a combination of DecoArt's Bright Bronze Metal Paint and it's Coal Black Metal Paint. The second layer was simply a coat of the Bright Bronze. The image and the words were added using Modpodge on both the tin and the back and from of the image. This protects them from getting dirty when handled. The heart lock and key were added using gel medium.



The inside of the tin:

Before adding any elements, I drilled two tiny holes at the top center of the lid lip. These holes would later have wire run through them to hold bottom half of the torso, allowing it to swing freely. Both sides of the tin were covered in scrapbook paper using Mod Podge to secure it.

The tiny shoes and purse are made from shrink plastic and the aluminum $5 bill image came from some, now long gone, chocolate candy I got at World Market. They were glued in with Gel medium, because it's stronger than the Modge Podge. The quote "Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world." was added to the right side of the tin.

The torso image was found at a shoe website, printed, and cut out and backed with two layers of cardstock to stiffen it. I punched a tiny hole at the top of the image to run the wire through it. The wire was added first through the two holes at the top of the tin, then through the torso from the front to back. Then I twisted the two wires in the back so they couldn't be seen from the front. The torso was then twisted around twice to form a little "rope", for lack of a better word.

It was a last minute gift idea but it was fun to create.

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