Painted Corrugated Tin Fish Door Hanger

You'll see corrugated tin cut-outs all over this part of the state, especially at the lake.  They're used for door hangers and garden decor and come in all kinds of shapes for all seasons and holidays.

Since we were having a fish themed birthday party for Harlow, I wanted to make a tin fish.  I searched Pinterest for ideas.  I pretty much stole the painting idea from a fish I saw on Pinterest (I tried to link it, but the link is broken).  My dad had the tin for me to use.  You can check hardware stores or even flea markets for tin.

I'll walk you through how I made the fish.  Somewhere along the way I accidentally deleted some of the photos from me making the fish template, so we'll skip ahead a bit as far as the photos are concerned.

• I taped together some newspaper and drew out the fish shape.  The great thing about this is you can make the drawing bigger or smaller or change the shape without ruining anything or having to start over since it's just newspaper.  You can see below where I changed the shape of the bottom fin a few times.  Once you get the shape you want, cut around the fish.
• I laid the newspaper fish on top of the tin and used a sharpie to trace the template onto the tin.
• Colin used an oscillating multi-tool to cut the tin.
• I cleaned the tin (you could do it before cutting it) and let it dry.
• I painted the fish.  After the paint dried, I sprayed a shiny clear coat on top to weather-proof the paint.
• Colin used the smallest drill bit he had to drill small holes below the top fin.  I strung galvanized wire through them, using needle nose pliers to twist the ends of the wire so it would stay put.  I hid the wire behind the fish so they fish would hang higher on the gate and not touch the ground.
• I hung it on the gate of our picket fence to welcome our family to Harlow's birthday party!

I let it hang the week of her party so she could enjoy it, but it didn't exactly go with the scarecrows on either side, so we've now put it away until summer.  Your size and paint possibilities are endless with this fish.  This was a fun project!