Here's What I Did: 

I started with the sardine tin, and after giving it a good wash out, gave the outside of it 2 coats of white gesso, once the gesso had totally blocked out the design on the tin I gave it several coats of PaperArtsy Fresco paint in Captain Peacock, I then watered down some That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint in Chestnut Brown to add a wash to make it look really grubby. Over that I then added That's Crafty! Sand Texture Paste around the tin and ring pull opener and let that dry. Once dry I painted the area's of paste with DecoArt Media Fluid Paints first layer was Paynes Grey and then over that a layer of Quinacridone Gold. As the paint has a sheen to it when dry I painted over the entire tin with DecoArt Ultra Matt Varnish which gives a really dull finish to the tin. For the inside I left the original silver and roughly painted it to age it with a combination of the Chestnut Brown and Quinacridone Gold.

Next was to create my fish, I needed a fish stamp that was a similar shape to a sardine so went with a PaperArtsy set by Elenzinski art how ever the fish on the stamp set were going in the wrong direction for my project so I needed a work around. My work around was that I stamped them all onto collage paper and as the ink comes through the other side I would use the reverse which gave me my fish swimming in the direction I needed. I painted the Fish on the side that I had stamped on, the colour would come through when reversed, using more That's Crafty! paint colours (I didn't use the striped fish)

I roughly cut each fish out and glued to white card, painted side down, using matt medium, let that dry and cut them out. I added some coloured pencil work to add a little more depth of colour. I embossed each fish using Tim Holtz Embossing Glaze in Weathered Wood, just rubbed the coloured fish across a Versamark inkpad and sprinkled on the powder and heated, this also made the fish a lot sturdier. The glazes have quite a sheen which I didn't want so I rubbed over with Rusty Hinge Distress Crayon, you could also use the matt medium over them unless you wanted them a little shiny. 

Now to arrange my fish to be swimming out of the can, I took some rusty wire and cut several lengths and wound each wire around a piece of wooden dowel, with the wires attached I glued the dowel into the end of the tin using a hot glue gun. I then started adding the fish to the wires, again using a hot glue gun to do this and then arranged the wires to create the scene of them escaping the tin. 

Final part was to create the background for them and for this I used one of That's Crafty! MDF Uprights. I wanted to rest the tin on a mound of sand so to build the tins resting place I scrunched up a handful of tissues covered in That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Adhesive and moulded it into the shape I wanted. When that was dry I covered it all up using That's Crafty! Fine Texture Paste and left it to dry. To the base of the Upright I smeared a layer of the Fine Texture Paste to match. The Upright I stencilled the same paste through That's Crafty! Lots of Circles mask and left everything to dry.

The upright part was coloured with a combination of Distress Oxide Sprays, Broken China, Cracked Pistachio & Vintage Photo and to create the sand colour of the base I first painted the entire base using sandstone paint and added some colour variation, again using Distress Oxide sprays this time using Antique Linen, Fossilized Amber & Vintage Photo. Then glued the upright into the base, ensure that you leave the area you glue free from the texture mediums to allow it to go together correctly.

I then positioned the can on its sandbank and glued in place with a hot glue gun. I added a few shells and fibres etc that I had collected previously.

Final addition were the words, PaperArtsy Stamp, that I stamped out onto a scrap piece of Distress Oxide covered card using brown Archival ink, cut out and glued to the background.

Here's What I Used:

That's Crafty! White Gesso

PaperArtsy Fresco Paint - Captain Peacock

That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Chestnut brown, Teal, Christmas Red, White & Sandstone

That's Crafty! Sand Texture Paste

DecoArt Media Fluid Paints - Paynes Grey & Quinacridone Gold

Archival Ink Pad - Black & Brown

Paperartsy Stamp Set - Elenzinski Art ZA30

PaperArtsy PAEAB16 - Magic & Wonder by Alison Bomber

Dina Wakley Collage Paper

DecoArt Matt Medium

DecoArt Ultra Matt Varnish

Versamark Ink Pad

Tim Holtz Embossing Glaze - Weathered Wood

Heat Gun

That's Crafty! MDF Uprights Pack of 4 

Lots of other different MDF Uprights HERE

That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Adhesive

That's Crafty! Fine Texture Paste

That's Crafty! Melina's Masks - Lots of Circles

Distress Oxide Sprays - Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen & Fossilized Amber

Tissue's

Distress Crayon - Rusty Hinge

Rusty Wire

Wooden Dowel

Hot Glue Gun

Have a great week and I will see you all next Tuesday

Love

Amanda X