Chattering Robins: How to make an altered art Altoid tin ornament

Time to send in the elves

Happy Holidays! Betsy Skagen of Paper Calliope here. Since we are in the crazed final few days before Christmas, I am going to TRY and keep this post short and sweet. I have shopping, baking and cleaning to do people! I have 23 people coming to house for Christmas Eve and I am far from prepared.

For this particular project, I used the lid leftover from another altered ornament I made. Good ~~hoarder~~ girl that I am, I always apply the waste not, want not motto to my crafting.

Altered Altoid tin tutorial

Step 1

Remove lid of Altoid tin by slowly bending lid backward to pull hinges away from box and sliding lid off. I prepped a bunch of my tins with gesso, but for this project you don't need to.

Step 2

Punch a hole in the center of one end of the lid.

Step 3

Trace an outline of the Altoid box lid onto the back side of the Robin's Nest Winter Retreat Glitter Swirl Cardstock. Carefully cut this out, slightly inside the lines and try fitting it inside the tin. Make tiny incremental trims, if necessary, until you have a perfect fit. Remove and set aside.

Step 4

Measure, and then measure again, the depth of the box. Usually this is 1/4″, but measure to make sure. Cut two 12" strips of the reverse side of the Winter Retreat cardstock. One of the strips will be microscopically thinner than the other. Check to ensure the fit of each. Trim the length as necessary.

Step 5

Apply matte medium (I used Liquitex) to the inside sides of the tin and the brown side of your Winter Retreat cardstock rectangle. Adhere to tin.

Step 6

Apply matte medium to the inside side of the tin and the blue side of the smaller of your narrow strips. Put the strip along the sides of the tin, making sure to put the seam on the bottom of the tin (opposite the hole).

Step 7

Apply matte medium over any surface that now has paper. Let dry.

Step 8

Repeat Step 3 on another section of your Winter Retreat cardstock, making it slightly larger so it fits the outside back of the tin.

Step 9

Trace a chipboard oval (psst, this is a sneak peek of an upcoming Robin's Nest product) onto a plain blue section of the Winter Retreat cardstock. Cut this out and adhere to the the chipboard oval.

Step 10

Make a score line about 1/4" from the bottom of the oval. Fold this backward so that you create a tabbed platform.

Step 11

Apply the Santa from the Christmas Rub-On to the front of the oval.

Step 12

Lining up the base of the oval to the Blue Glitter Cardstock so that the tab is hanging off the edge, glue the oval to the cardstock. Trim the Blue Glitter Cardstock about 3/16 away from the edge of the oval.

Step 13

Trim a Winter Snowflake to match the edge of the ovals and glue in place.

Step 14

Glue the tabbed platform to the inside bottom right corner of the tin.

Step 15

From inside the tin, thread the ribbon through the top hole, make a loop, threat back through the hole, then through a bead. Tie and glue in place.

Step 16

Apply brown Stickles and Dew Drops.

Step 17

Apply matte medium to the outer sides of the tin and the blue side of the second thin strip and adhere to the tin.

Step 18

Check to make sure that that the Winter Retreat cardstock rectangle fits the outside of the tin (snowflake side up) so that it neatly covers your side edges.

Step 19

Apply matte medium to the outside of the tin and the brown side of the Winter Retreat rectangle and adhere to the tin. Then cover both the outside base and sides with a thin coat of matte medium. Let dry.

Step 20

Starting at the bottom of the tin, adhere blue tinsel pipe cleaner to the front outside edge.

Hmmm...twenty steps? Not so short.