PFF: DIY Travel Watercolor Kit Altoids Upcycle

Welcome to another Pinterest Find or Fail adventure:  DIY Travel Watercolor Kit!

Watercolors:  My Backstory

When I began my watercolor journey a few months ago, I had researched and ordered tubes of Sennelier L’Aquarelle and had used them in an airtight palate.  This was good for the studio, but terrible for travel as the palate is quite large and truly cumbersome.

I then bought the Windsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor set of 12 half pans and have used this almost exclusively since it came into my possession.  But I’ve been wasting my Sennelier through non-use and it has colors my Cotman doesn’t.  What to do?

Well, first, I was going to buy some empty pans.  That proved more difficult and expensive than I anticipated and since I’m not presently flush with cash to burn, I decided against it.  I noted on Pinterest that people had used Altoids tins for this purpose and while some had used the empty half pans, some had used gum or other packaging.

Making My Own Watercolor Travel Kit

So, rummaging through my drawers and medicine cabinet, I found an old Altoids tin and the packaging for Olba’s Zinc Lozenges.  Now, this isn’t perfect as the insert only has room for 9 colors, but it does give me two levels of paints, so 12 in total if I were to get another Olba’s insert.

I made two color cards to help me remember the color and brand of each of the paints as I have added a Mission Rose Madder and Windsor & Newton Professional Zinc White Gouache.  The cards also to help keep everything in order and placed a cut up piece of paper towel in the kit to make sure any excess water or squishiness doesn’t get into my bag.

Overall, I feel this is definitely a find and I additionally am going to work on a Sculpey Clay insert for an Altoids Mini tin I have lying around!