Lunch Tin

Can you believe that I have never made one of these?

Sure I've covered other tins and 3d items but never one of these top opening tins.

It's not finished - I need to do something with the flower (or not) and I need to decorate the front - but I wanted to share this with you because I was so excited at how it turned out!

AND most importantly I have some tips to share with you!

I'm going to use this one as my "CARDS" tin. I know it's not big enough but my husband asked me for a sympathy card the other day and I told him there were some in the basket - well there are 3 baskets full of cards in my craft room and that was too much for him! So I thought I'd put a selection in here so they'd be easy for him to find when he needed a card.

I'll make some dividers out of coordinating colours of cardstock for the inside.

For the outside I used Tres Jolie paper from My Mind's Eye that also had some coordinating paper strips -these I cut up and used to accent the tin.

Here are some tips:

1. To save money use fabric strips instead of ribbon to decorate the handle. I used 7 inch strips of both fabric (teal taffeta & a synthetic faux suede in olive and mustard) and ribbon (olive organdy and burgundy grosgrain).

2. Use embellishments to hide "bald" spots. I haven't glued down this flower (with a rhinestone brad) and may move it to the front of the tin after I've figured out what letters I'll use to decorate the front (I'm considering "CARDS" cut out with my Cricut Base Camp cartridge).

3. I made myself a template for the top piece so if I make another one of these I can use the template and save myself some time. That is if I can remember where I left the template! LOL!

This one is 4 x 7 and I used the 7/8 inch circle punch (1/2" in from the sides) to make the centre cut out. I also used the large corner rounder.

4. I used the 1" circle punch to cut out the notch in the front cardstock piece.

5. I know that someone will ask me about adhesives so I'll tell you right now that I put this whole thing together with my ATG tape gun! I don't know what I did before I got it!

Well that's my first tin - I'll add photos to this post when I finish the inside.

I'm thinking that I'd like to add something to the inside of the lid with a pocket for stamps...