Tart Tin Ornaments

Just a few of my many tart tins. 

For the last year I have been purchasing vintage tart tins at estate sales. I have quite the collection. I am attracted to their shapes, textures and colors. I knew I wanted to recycle them and create something new from something vintage which if you follow my blog you know I love to do. The first thing I came up with was tart tin Christmas trees which I wrote about in an earlier blog, Tart Tins. You can read it here.  But I still have lots of tart tins. So I searched my favorite idea site, Pinterest and discovered some cute ideas for tart tin ornaments. I have no idea if they will sell but I love how they turned out. Here's how I made them.First start with some vintage tart tins. I bought mine at local estate sales. Next I gathered some cute vintage items from my Christmas goodies stash.

Vintage Light Bulbs

My one really well organized area....my Christmas stash

Wooden Ornaments

I have bottle brush trees, old wooden ornaments, glass balls, flocked Santas, reindeer, bells, garland, scrabble letters and more.


 I think the tins look great with snow glitter. First I spray the tin with adhesive spray. I like to do this outside because the spray has a terrible odor. Then I sprinkle my glitter into the tin. I try to do 10 to 12 of these at a time to let them dry.

After they dry I use a combination of hot glue and white glue to attach my decorations. I like the hot glue for a fast hold and the white glue for a longer lasting secure hold.


I use a punch tool to put two holes in the top of the tins to put silver elastic cord through to hang the finished tins. This punch is an awesome little tool.

I found some cheap round stickers at the local dollar store so I created some vintage graphics with them from Graphics Fairy which is a great site for vintage graphics.

Here are some of the finished tins. 

I think these turned out awesome. If you don't have any tart tins you could use old cookie cutters as an alternative. If you try this please share your finished products with me as I'd love to see them. Happy Junkin. Remember, buy what you love.

Tart Pans! 

Don't ask me why but I love tart pans! When I'm at an estate sale and I see a box or pile of old tart pans I just have to buy them. But what to do with them?

I've been searching Pinterest for the last six months seeking a neat way to upcycle them. I love the idea of making Christmas ornaments out of them, but I'm unsure of the success I will have selling them. Which, truth be know, I'm never really sure if something I created or recreate will sell in my antique and collectibles booths. 

But, this week I discovered the cutest little Christmas tree made out of tart tins. Here's the post from Thrity Rebel Vintage. Love it! Of course I will have to modify it because there's no way I would have enough sparkly jewelry to put on top of my tart trees for a star.   Tula from Thrifty Rebel Vintage used styrofoam balls between her tart tins. That just didn't work great for me. My first attempt was okay but not fabulous.

The foam balls melted with hot glue and wouldn't stay in place with the other glues. I couldn't get the tart pans to stay glued straight. I tried E6000, tacky glue and hot glue.  My second attempt was disastrous.Then I tried a combination of all three glues with no success. Styrofoam melts!

  

 

I switched to using a paper towel roll cut into small pieces instead of the foam balls and that worked a bit better on attempts three and four. But I still wasn't satisfied.

 I'm not one to give up easily so I thought about what I could use to go between the layers of tart pans. Then it hit me! Corks. So I sent out a call to my Facebook friend for some wine corks. Wow do my friends love wine. My sister-in-law came through first with a bag of beautiful intact corks.

So that's what I'm trying next. Check back and I'll update my progress. 

Besides my cork idea I also came up with an idea to add a drawer pull or knob (as we call them on the South) to the top. Of course a Christmas tree needs a star so I've ordered some 2 1/2 inch stars off of Facebook to add to the front of the knobs. I also added old wooden sewing spools (another find I can't resist) for a trunk. I'll post a pic of the finished tart pan trees in an update soon.

So folks the message here is again what I always say, "BUY WHAT YOU LOVE!" Keep researching and you will find a way to turn those finds into treasures.

Update: The corks work great. They are easy to cut as needed. I just sprayed them silver in case they show. The little arrived, and they are perfect. What a fun way to upcycle or repurpose tart pans.

FINISHED TREES....EXCUSE MY MESSY WORKSPACE

AREN'T THESE CUTE?