Sunday, July 31, 2016

Got Milk?


When I first saw the Bird's SVGs 'coming soon' message regarding the Nature's Bounty kit, I was truly excited to see a milk can in the collection. Over the past year or so, I've been trying to combine my love of both paper crafting and genealogy into some of my projects.  

My great-grandparents lived on a farm in Pennsylvania, and my great-grandfather Harry was a dairy manager. Unfortunately, my great-grandmother passed away at a very young age when my grandmother was barely four years old. One of the few pictures I have of my great-grandmother is this one with my grandmother as an infant, and a few milk cans in the background. 


  

Add in Harry's career as a dairy man (pictured on the right in the photo below) and you can see why I thought this project would be so much fun to incorporate into my family history projects/home decor.  Because this milk churn is also a box, I'm thinking it might be fun to put together a mini album with some of these photos which I can store inside the can.  That'll be a project for another day though.


Okay, family history lesson over!  I did an online search to get a feel for what vintage milk cans looked like and notice that many of them had raised/embossed lettering on the sides with the name of the dairy they came from.  I love that Harry's name rhymes with 'dairy,' so I decided to make that the name for the side of the can...Harry's Dairy!  The next trick was figuring out how to get the look of raised metal letters.  

I decided that I could cut the letters out of the same metallic paper I was using for the can and then just glue them on. I used Tim Holtz Alphanumeric Thinlets to cut the letters.



There are also a lot of photos of very rusted and distressed old milk cans, so before I added the letters, I scratched up and sanded the metallic cardstock panel pieces and then inked them all with some Distress ink in Walnut Stain.  





Once I was done making an inky mess of myself, I adhered the panels to the can and fell in love with the final results. I may have gotten a little bit carried away with the distressing in a few spots, but overall, I just love how this turned out.  



Thanks to Bird's wonderful design, I was able to put it all together in just an hour or two which included everything from the time I fired up my Cricut until I was taking pictures of the finished project.   

There are a few days left for you to get the Nature's Bounty kit from Bird's SVGs while it is still on special - a great deal with so many fun projects. 

You can find it here:  Nature's Bounty SVG Collection




And here's one more look at my finished project:



Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to hear what you think of my vintage milk can in a comment below.  

30 comments:

  1. Awesome job Lee. Wonderful project and great post!

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  2. WOW!!!! That is awesome! Think I just might have to make one like it :-)

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  3. Fantastic! what a wonderful project to a great family story! thanks for sharing

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  4. Great present for a farmer in the family. Lovely job

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    1. Thanks Yana! I think it would be such a cool gift box for a family member.

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  5. Very clever, I thought it was the real deal. THank you for sharing.

    Happy thoughts,
    Petrina
    New York

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    1. Thanks Petrina! Maybe my enrollment in Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry this summer is paying off!!

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  6. You really captured the look of the milk cans I've seen hanging out in barns all over Minnesota for years!

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    1. Thanks Casie! That's exactly what I was hoping for.

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  7. Oh! So incredible! Thank you for sharing your creative talent.

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  8. OMG! You did an amazing job on your milk container! Love your interesting story and presentation. Super job!

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    1. Thanks Misty! Sure was fun to put together.

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  9. Your milk can turned out perfect! What a wonderful way to honor your ancestors. They would be proud!

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    1. Thanks Linda! I wish my grandmother was still around to see it as she's the one who got me started in paper-crafting some 30+ years ago. I'd like to think she would have gotten a kick out of it.

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  10. This is brilliant. Of I didn't already know that it was made from Cardstock, I genuinely would never have know because what you have done with it to create a rustic authentic look is nothing short of genius. Honestly, it's great and the lettering looks the real deal too. Well done to your skills and Birds file for a wonderful authentic look. I also love the story of your great grand parents too with their farm and his job, an album inside the churn would make a fitting tribute.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Paula from across the pond xx

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    1. Wow, thank you so much for the kind words Paula! It sure was a fun project to plan and build. I'm glad others are enjoying it as much as I am.

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  11. Truly incredible work. You've made it look so realistic. It's lovely that you've been able to add to your family history with it. ☺

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  12. Truly incredible work. You've made it look so realistic. It's lovely that you've been able to add to your family history with it. ☺

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  13. Truly incredible work. You've made it look so realistic. It's lovely that you've been able to add to your family history with it. ☺

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  14. Absolutely Precious! Great way you captured its authenticity! ;-}

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  15. This is just amazing! And to tie it to family memories like this is oh so special!

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