Bloom Where You're Planted

Bloom Where You're Planted

An upcycled tin can becomes a random act of kindness 

Isn't she pretty?  I'm leaving her out as a random act of kindness for someone to find and take home.  

I hope she makes someone happy for years to come!

What you will need:

A tin can.  I am using a tuna can.  I love the shape and size.

Creative Paperclay and some tools for smoothing out your clay.

Acrylic Paint, I am using my old stand-bys from Plaid Paints. 

A rolling pin or brayer. 

Texture sheets, stamps, plastic embroidery canvas, or whatever you want to use for textures.  I'm using a variety of texture sheets. Most of them are from my friend Victoria James Real Textures. 

Mod Podge (outdoor formula) by Plaid or sealer of your choice.  

Paint Brushes - nothing fancy for this type of painting.  Use what you have. We also need some plastic deli sheets or freezer paper.

Let's do this thing! 

Start by rolling out a strip of Creative Paperclay between 2 sheets of plastic or paper. The plastic sheets keep the clay from sticking to the roller and your surface. 

The goal is to get a strip that will wrap around your can.  Make it about 1/8 of an inch thick. 

Add textures to your strip of Creative Paperclay. 

Wrap the strip around your can.  Cut off any excess.  If you are a little short just add a little patch.

Smooth out your seam with a tool.

Trim excess from top and bottom edges.

Roll out your scrap pieces, add textures, measure bottom of can. 

Trim off excess. 

Smooth seams.

Add texture to any places that got Smoothed over.

Roll out a snake-y piece. It needs to be long enough to fit around the top edge.  

Add texture 

Wet rim of can and underside of clay snake.  Apply enough pressure to attach snake to rim but, not too much or you will lose all of your texture.  

Smooth your seams out with a tool to bond strip to cylinder well. Add texture to any parts that lost if from handling or bonding together.  

Allow your little pot to dry for 24 hours.

Paint with several coats of acrylic paint. I like using black as my base color. Use whatever you like.  

Dry brush with metallic paint. I also added some Pearl-Ex pigment powders by Jacquard.  I wanted some extra shimmer!

Seal with Mod-Podge (Outdoor formula).

Fill with a bit of soil and your favorite succulent. I added a seashell and some glass pebbles to jazz it up a bit.

I split off the off-shoots, failure to launch babies, from my 30 something year old Zebra Haworthia Attenuata.  I'm giving a few away to friends and leaving some out as random acts of kindness.  

Isn't this a great little gift?

I hope you have fun with this project! If you decide to make one, or 20, please share your results with me!