Decorative Tin – Altoids Tin Upcycling

If you know me (learn about me: https://snwjune.blogspot.com/2020/07/background.html), you know I love Altoids and I love crafting. If you’re like me, you have a few Altoids tins lying around and you’re feeling crafty, so why not make a little decorative tin for a friend or yourself. I make these often and give them as gifts sometimes filled with chocolates or other treats. They make good storage containers for USB drives or other computer memory cards or small items that are important and can be easily lost. You can also use them to hold some band-aids and alcohol wipes for a mini first-aid kit. I’ve also used them to hold jewelry, earplugs, or earbuds when I travel. There are  lots of uses for these boxes and chances are you can make them with things you have around your home.

 Step 1: Gather your materials

You’ll need an Altoids tin, a glue stick (I prefer Elmer’s) a pen or pencil, scissors, a fine paint brush, some scrapbook paper (or wrapping paper or thick decorative paper), patterns, and any other decorations like stickers, buttons, etc.

Decide what theme or style you want for your box. I’m doing a beach theme. I have beach themed scrapbook paper, some tiny shells from a broken necklace, and a picture from the back of a calendar.

I made my patterns for the outside top and bottom by tracing around the tin and adding enough extra around the edges in a square-ish shape to make the sides. And then cut little tabs on each corner to meet the inner tin shape. The inside top and bottom were just from tracing around the outside and trimming it down until I got a pretty good fit. You can reuse these patterns everytime you make tins so I suggest making them out of something sturdy like a cereal box.

Step 2: Wash the Tin

The tin will have some dust from the mints so you’ll need to wash it and dry it. Make sure you dry it thoroughly because it is metal and water could cause it to rust. If you don’t wash you won’t be able to glue the paper in place. 

Step 3: Covering the Outside

 

Now that you have your materials and your theme it’s time to cut out the paper to cover the tin. Take the patterns and trace them onto the scrapbook paper or whatever paper you’re using. I find scrapbook paper works the best but I have used wrapping paper too. Make sure to mark them so you know which is top and which is bottom. Then once you cut out the paper for the outside top and bottom, fold in the sides and use the glue stick to glue the paper in place.

You may have to repeat the gluing and holding on end tabs a few times before the stay. The tabs should overlap a little. I always start with the bottom then when it’s secure I do the top. Make sure there is enough room for the hinges on the back or the tin won’t open properly.

Once the paper is glued on and tabs on the sides are set you can trim the excess on the corners. Then decorate the top with a cute saying or stickers or whatever you like. I used a saying from the same beach themed scrapbook paper. Wait until the outside is dry before moving to the next step.

Step 4: Decorate the inside

Use the scrapbook paper for the top and bottom (note you might need to trim them down to fit inside). You can also cut a strip to cover the inside wall of the bottom tin but I don’t mind leaving that as is. Once you have the top and bottom paper in place you can decorate those as you like, I used a small cut out from the back of a calendar and some small shells from a broken necklace. For the shells I used Tacky glue to secure them and I used a small paint brush to remove the excess glue.

Step 5: Optional! Sealing with Modpodge

 I usually do a sealer coat of Mod Podge because this decoration is just paper and it will serve as a little protection from wear and tear but since it is paper these aren’t meant for rough handling and shouldn’t be exposed to moisture.

Initially the Mod Podge coat might cause the paper to come loose. I use a small paint brush and a little tacky glue to reattach any places that need it. Once the top is dry you can Mod Podge the bottom if you want. I don’t usually do that but you can, however if you do then you don’t want to skip the next step.

Step 6: Feet

 Finally, you can add feet to the bottom of the tin. I use these self-adhesive felt pads but you can use buttons or wooden beads, or whatever you like. You should be sure to do this if you put a coat of Mod Podge on the bottom of the tin otherwise the paper could stick when you place it down in direct contact with surfaces.

Final notes:

The paper around the inside top and bottom of my tin has some rough edges, I don’t mind since I’m keeping this for myself but if you’re giving this as a give you can always hide those with more decorations like glitter or sand for the beach theme, felt, or tissue paper. You just have to be sure whatever you use around the lid still allows the lid to close. There are all kinds of scrapbook paper out there so you can do all kinds of different tins. The internet is full of sites with other decorated tins you can search through for inspiration. Here is the finished tin and some of the others I’ve done. Have fun making your own!

Welcome Wreath

I have never made a wreath before, so this project is definitely for beginners.  During this pandemic there have actually been a lot of home sales in Illinois, so this project will be gifted to someone I know who purchased a new home this month. 

All products used were purchased online at Michaels and I drove up to the curb and they dropped it into my car through the backseat window.  I have a lot of acrylic paints and brushes and I also had a hot glue gun.  The paint, brush, glue gun, and glue can also be purchased at Michaels, Dollar Tree, Target, etc. 

14’ Grapevine Wreath by Ashland in Natural Brown

$4.29 from Michaels

Leather Fern Spray by Ashland

4 Purchased: $1.53 from Michaels

Pink Hydrangea & Peony Stem Bundle by Ashland

$8.59 from Michaels

Rectangle Wood Pallet Plaque by ArtMinds

$2.57 from Michaels

Ivory Mini Gypsophila Spray by Ashland in White

2 Purchased:  $2.29

I pulled apart the floral bundle to reveal each floral stem.  I immediately was concerned after seeing how thick the stems were and worried they would not weave very well in-between the wreath branches.  Well guess what, it was trickery!  The stem is actually a hollow plastic stem with the wooden stem inside.  It was very easy to pull the green plastic cover down to reveal the wood floral stem.  There was one floral stem that was hard to pull down and I realized it was glued to the bottom of the flower leaf.  I did not want to break the floral top so I used scissors to cut away the green plastic and left the top trim about 1 inch.  These stems were very delicate so make sure you are gentle with them when using this kind of stripping method.  

The ferns and gypsophila stems were too long so I used scissors to trim the length down to the same size as the hydrangea and peony stems.  The fern also was too big and had too many leaves, so I trimmed four leaves starting from the bottom so more of the stem was visible and this would make it much easier to weave the stem through the branches.  I found the actual weaving technique had no specific method when inserting the stems into the thick branches of the wreath.  It was just a matter of maneuvering the stems using pressure and force to weave in-between the branches of the wreath.

After each stem was inserted and weaved as much as possible to be in my desired position, I then turned over the wreath to find the stem sticking up, and I pushed it through using downward force to weave it through the branches again. This allowed the stem to be nestled into the wreath securely. 

      

I used white acrylic paint and a small brush to start to write ‘Welcome’ on the wood pallet plaque.  I ended up with the word too far on the right side of the plaque and it looked very odd with a large space which was now on the left of the plaque.  To cover this mistake, I plucked out a petal from the extra floral stem I had, and a silk leaf from the bundle and then I used hot glue from my glue gun to stick them in the extra space I had accidentally created.  I would really recommend that you use chalk first to outline the words before you start using the paint!  I then used two twisty-ties that I had in the kitchen from bread bags to tie the string of the of plaque to a think branch at the bottom center of the wreath.  Michaels also has floral wire which is ideal for this project, but I did not want to purchase a large roll of floral wire just for this project. 

 

When I first started weaving the stems in the wreath, I wanted to have the flowers and fern on the left of the wreath, but when I assembled it together I wasn’t loving how it looked with the wood pallet plaque in the center as it was too large.  Instead, I assembled it with the flowers and fern in the lower center of the wreath and then the idea came to me to have the wood pallet plaque hang from underneath.  In hindsight, I think a larger wreath would have suited this size plaque, such as an 18” wreath. You can also hang the plaque’s string from the top of the wreath using twisty-ties to a branch at the top.  This way your plaque hangs in the center.  

If you made this project please share it with us, we'd love to see it!

Welcome to our blog: COVID-19 Stay at Home DIY

About Us:  

We are two friends who bonded over our fur children and love of crafting.  Since March, 2020, we've both been working from home due to the Stay at Home orders from our states, Florida and Illinois, in response to the outbreak of COVID-19.  Many of the DIY posts and pages on keeping busy with crafts during quarantine are for families who are staying at home with young children.  They did not really apply to us since we were looking to keep busy and do some DIY activities that were for specific for us- crafters looking for cost-conscious projects to do in quarantine with limited supplies needed for adults with beginner crafting skills.  We also wanted to share our projects to help inspire others like us to who were looking for things to do rather than going out for social activities. 

Thanks for reading about our fun projects.  Stay at home and be well!