Mint Condition- Altered Altoid Tins

Recycling may be a hot trend, but recycling used to be what “crafting” was all about. We didn’t always have the infinite number of supplies that are now available in the craft stores and online, we used whatever we had. I remember my sister covering an old tin with shells to give to mum for her birthday. Mum always kept it – things like that are always more special than anything bought in a store.  I’ve been crafter for a long time and over the years I’ve accumulated lots and lots of supplies.  This is how I used some of them.

Start with an empty Mint Condition- Altered Altoid Tin:

 

Pretty boring, right… so let’s add some scraps of paper, ribbon, stickers and anything you might happen to have on hand (pretty much anything you have in your stash) and, in no time at all, it can look like this:

And it is so easy.  First of all you may want to sand the surface lightly to rough it up a bit, then cover with scraps of paper.  I lay the tin onto the paper then draw and cut around the outline.  I glue it in place with tacky glue.  Just make sure you cover the surface completely. You can glue strips of paper around the edges, or use ribbon.  Either technique is quite acceptable.  It’s YOUR project and YOU get to do whatever you like.

TIP:  Terrifically Tacky tape is a great to use to stick ribbon round the edges.

Paper, stickers, punched shapes, adhesive jewels, ribbon, metal accents, buttons – there is no limit to the kinds of embellishments you can use.  If you are a fan of Polymer Clay they are also oven friendly and make great bases for projects.  So, get out your stash of stuff and re-cycle those tins!

Yours truly, Julie 🙂