Vintage Floral Tins

I did not set out to collect vintage tins, but I love floral patterns and collectible tins kept catching my eye at flea markets. They were so pretty and so cheap, that before I knew it I had a small collection!

Always looking for new ways to display flowers, I recently started putting my vintage tin cans to good use. 

Old tin cans are not watertight, so I insert a large, wide-mouth drinking glass or small glass vase to hold the water. (Tip: Find inexpensive glass vases at your local discount or "dollar" store.)

 Use the height of the tin to help you gage the proper length for each of the flower stems.

Let the colors of the tin's decoration suggest the flower colors.

This tin cost me a whole $3. Doesn't it look pretty filled with daffodils and pansies! 

 Quince in a red floral tin.

The April issue of Country Living Magazine (as seen above) has, as part of their "A fresh take on florals" feature, a beautiful photograph of modern floral tins. 

Final Photo Credit: Country Living Magazine, April 2010. Photographer: Ericka McConnell Styling by: Sunday Hendrickson

Bring Spring Indoors

I love to have flowers in the house and am always looking for new ways to display them. Here is a novel way to bring spring into your home.

Things you will need to recreate this arrangement in your own home:

Decorative metal trough (find decorative pots at garden supply or interior decorating stores)

3 small bulb pots

Spanish moss (find moss at a garden supply store or craft store)

pruners

twigs snipped from the garden

paper butterflies (find the butterflies at a craft store)

For this arrangement, I used three small pots of daffodils that I got at the grocery store (Total cost just under $10).

I watered them and then placed them in the metal trough. If you scout around you can often find metal buckets or troughs that hide the less than attractive plastic pots in which spring bulbs are most commonly sold.

To support the leaves, which I sometimes find flop down unattractively, I used red dogwood branches that I snipped out of the garden.

Then, I added some Spanish moss to disguise the plastic pots.

(Tip: Spanish moss can get a bit messy, so for an easier cleanup work over top of some open newsprint. If you or someone else in your household suffers from allergies replace the moss with shredded paper from a craft store).

For a final flourish, I twisted paper butterflies on to the dogwood branches.