In the past, I have purchased a variety of tins that held different balms or mints. I also acquired an old cigar box. First, I cleaned the containers to rid them of any remainder of balm, debris, or labels. For the old Altoid tins, I handed sanded off the labels and painted the tins black bottoms.
I took a mixed media approach to decorate all of the containers. I used some acrylic pour paint drippings, fabric from a discarded umbrella, a postcard, Swarovski crystals, jewelry findings, and actual small acrylic paintings on canvas I had painted earlier this year. I also added necklace chains to the inside of the lids of the Altoid tins. I DO NOT recommend doing this. While the chains made nice borders, they affected the closing of the lids.
I adhered the canvas of one of my paintings to the lid and added furniture embellishments with Swarovski crystals for the salvaged cigar box. On the inside of the lid, I glued a wooden owl cut out. I then added a piece of foam covered by the umbrella fabric to the bottom. I also attached some gold filigree embellishments and crystals to the sides of this box.
Many steps were taken to get these usual containers to be artsy, but the process was worth it!
