01/20/2012 - Keepsake Tin

Altoids® tins are quite wonderful...first they are filled with a curiously strong mint, then you are left with a handy little contraption that has all sorts of uses and they are fully recyclable. My collection of the tins has grown over the years and I kept thinking, one of these days I will make something fun with those. The original plan was to build my house work robot, but I am just sticking to decorating it for keepsakes for now.


Recycled Material: Altoids® tin, metal scraps, random bits from SCRAP, #2 plastic lid
Other Material: spray paint, paint pen
Tools: painter's tape, hot glue gun, scissors, cardboard box or newspaper


How I did it: I used the painter's tape to tape down the overlapping edge on the bottom of the tin where the lid closes then used leftover black spray paint to paint the outside of the tin and let it dry. While it dried, I used another Altoids® tin as a template to trace the raised border on the lid onto the plastic lid. It was helpful that I could see the border through the lid and marked and cut the border shape, the trimmed the piece a little bit smaller than the tin border. I was going to leave the blue lid as it was, but ended up using a gold paint pen to color it because my random scraps had a gold-ish theme. Once the tin was dry, I used the gold paint pen to paint the raised border on the tin. I hot glued the plastic piece to the tin and let it set. After arranging the random bits, I hot glued the pieces on and let them set. The tape was removed and I let the tin dry completely. There was a hot glue blob that escaped from under the plastic and when I pulled it off, some of the black paint came up with it. This worked out because I ended up making random scratches on the paint to go with the worn look of the decorative pieces.

What I would do differently:  The nice thing about this project is that there are so many ways to do this differently. This could be done as a kid's craft by gluing paper over the brand cover or painting it by hand. Just about anything can be used to decorate the tin. I am happy with the scraps I found and used and they are meant to represent what can be stored in the tin. Lots of fun and I recommend giving this a try with your own spin!