Simple Vases - Vintage Tins & Painted Cans

More simple vases, and this week I thought I'd have a look at some different ways to use tins. I have a bit of a thing for vintage tins and could easily fill shelves and cupboards with old biscuit tins and tea caddy's.

You can often find decorative tins in charity shops, car boots and antiques fairs, but if you're not the thrifting type, you can still get hold of classic british brands in the supermarket (think Colmans, Lyle and Tate and Brasso).  Don't forget to check the world food aisle too and look out for eye catching designs when you're on holiday.

I like to fill mine with buttons and beads and assorted habadashery bumpf, but they also make great containers for flowers and plants. A row of herbs planted in tins makes a pretty and practical display on  a kitchen window sill or shelf.

Not to worry if you can't find tins with pretty designs on them. Make do with good old baked bean cans, remove the paper labels and paint in matte pastel shades and you still have rather fetching simple vases. 

Or you could enhance their metallic sheen with a spritz of spray paint. The copper and bronze shades used here look great. Make sure to spray in a well ventilated area, hold canister about 10-15cm from the tin, taking care to move both tin and spray to achieve an even finish. Leave plenty of time to dry.

To introduce pattern, wrap the cans in clashing or co-ordinating giftwrap or wallpaper. The uniform shape and size of the tins used here brings a bit of harmony to this cheerful mix of colours and designs.

A cheap, fun and (perhaps with the exception of the spray paint) environmentally friendly way to decorate your tables.   

Images: Dear Designer; House and Home; Country Living; Sweet Paul; Jane Weddings; Bumpsmitten

Spring Flower Workshop Part II

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a floristry workshop at Make and Do in Caversham.  The idea for the workshop was to demonstrate some spring flower arrangements in upcycled vases. 

I decided to use containers that we all have lying around at home - such as tin cans, jam jars and glass ramekins (if you enjoy a posh pud now and again as I do, you are bound to have a few of these lurking in your recycling bin). But rather than recycle them, we were going to reuse and upcycle them by looking at different ways we could add some pretty. 

We started the session with a small hand tie of Tulips and Genista, spiralling the stems and tying lightly so as not to crush the delicate stems, and cutting to size to suit the proportions of the tin cans.

Then I demonstrated how to make a little front facing tied posy suitable for a jam jar - using groups of Hyacinths, Muscari, Feverfew, Tete a Tete and Paperwhites.

Before moving on to work on a petite oasis arrangement in a ramekin. These sort of arrangements are great for using odd stems from larger bouquets, or a few cuttings from the garden - be sure to condition the flowers and foliage well before using them in oasis.

We used Ranunculus, Lisianthus, Waxflower and a few heads of limey green button Chrysanthemums. Roses would work equally well.

Lastly we looked at ways to decorate the containers. I'd brought along tin cans painted with tester pots from Farrow & Ball, and wrapped jam jars with wool in aqua shades. Hannah from Make & Do had used Enamel paint to give her jam jars a tint of pink.

The class then decorated their vases with fabric trimmings and ribbons from Make and Do's well stocked shelves.  At the end of the afternoon, they had 3 little spring arrangements to take home and hopefully picked up a few tips on how to recreate them at leisure.

It was such a lovely afternoon, hopefully we'll do it all again soon, but with a summer theme. 

Perhaps in time to inspire your Jubilee tea party decorations?..

Spring Flower Workshop

Its a gloomy January day, but I've been having fun trying out a few ideas for an upcoming Floristry workshop at Make and Do in Caversham.

Spring flowers never fail to cheer me up. I just love the simplicity of Tulips, the heady scent of Hyacinths and the plump and heavily petalled perfection of pretty Ranunculus.

For this workshop I'm going to be giving tips on how to turn everyday containers like jam jars and tin cans into pretty vases, and demonstrating how to make petite tied arrangements - perfect for your kitchen window, bedside table, for budget weddings and thank you gifts.

The workshop costs £35 (which includes tuition, all flowers and containers) and takes place Sunday 1st April 2 - 4.30pm, at Make and Do, Prospect Street, Caversham. Check out their website at Make and Do, and phone 0118 3276717 to book.

Simple vases

Working on some ideas for my next workshop. I'm thinking up ways to reuse, recycle, and revamp everyday containers - lots of inspiration to be found on Pinterest. These cherries picked here, here and here 

Love the tin cans, they're great planted or with fresh flowers, plus there's so many ways you could trim them to make them your own. And the lightbulbs are genius. They'd be really pretty hanging from branches for Christmas, with maybe some glitter in the water for added sparkle.  

Fabric wrappings are a simple way to bring extra colour, texture and pattern to your table too. Experiment with offcuts from craft projects for a double dose of recycling - perhaps gingham, stripes or lace.