Little Tin Boxes : Decorating : Home & Garden Television

Kids especially love this project, these small tins are a great place to hide their most beloved treasures!

Any number of products now come packaged in little tin boxes, such as mints and candy. But what to do with the empty tin? With just a little creativity, these tins can be transformed into useful and decorative containers.

Materials:

metal tins
metal paint
embellishments - tissue paper, glitter paint, polished stones, stickers, etc.

Figure A: Adding glitter paint.

Steps:

Before decorating, clean tin inside and out.
Paint and decorate the top of the tin using metal paint, glitter paint, stones, stickers, etc. (figure A).
Suggested Decorating Ideas
- Paint outside of tin an off-white color. Coat the top with decoupage medium and cover it with a piece of decorative tissue paper cut slightly larger than the top of the tin. Apply the medium to the sides of the top, pull tissue down, cut off surplus then press the remaining tissue neatly along the sides. Coat entire top with another layer of the medium. Cover the bottom of the tin the same way. Do not coat the area that will be covered by the top when tin is closed.

Figure B: Consider using tumbled stones.

Paint the tin then cover entire top with small polished stones, leaving a small space between each stone. Glue them to hold with any preferred glue. Grout as you would any mosaic piece (figure B).

Paint the sides and bottom of tin as desired. With some tins this may not be necessary, if the tin is a plain gold or silver. Cover the top with glitter paint. Wait for it to dry completely then add small designs with glitter paint in contrasting colors.

Paint the tin any desired color then cover the top with stickers. Glue stickers with any chosen glue. Do not rely on the sticky backing to hold them in place. Cover top completely with embossing ink by patting an embossing pad up and down over entire surface. Cover with ultra thick embossing powder, brush off excess and apply heat gun. While powder is still warm add more powder and repeat the process. Repeat entire process at least three times to bury the stickers.

Completed tins can be lined with Con-tact velour paper and used to carry cosmetics, sewing supplies, pills, etc.

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