Mint tins are such a fun canvas for crafting. When the mint tin is closed, it looks like an ordinary tin container. But then you open it and reveal a miniature wonderland of creativity. You can decorate both sides with decorative paper, artificial flowers, magazine ads — or things you have just hanging out in your junk drawers. It’s also fun to customize it with photographs and quotations. I made the one in this example for a friend’s dog named Speck. As you can see, these mint tin dioramas make great keepsakes and gifts.
Keep in mind that Altoid mints are not kosher, but you can find kosher brands like Meltzer’s, or better yet, order new, empty tins in bulk from Amazon.
What you’ll need:
Mint tin
Decorative papers
Miniature decorative elements
Photographs
Glue
1. Cut decorative paper to fit the two sides of the tin and glue it in place. I used scrapbooking paper, but you can let your imagination go crazy here and line the tin with old maps, book pages, magazine ads, tickets, packaging, comics pages, etc.
2. Pick a quotation that’s meaningful to you, print it out and glue it on one of the sides of the tin.
3. The fun part is gluing some small decorative elements around the tin. I featured some paper flowers that I use for card-making, and I even added some plastic leaves and artificial turf. As I said, whatever’s in your junk drawer.
4. Customize with a photo. I made the photo dimensional by gluing a small piece of foam behind it and gluing that onto the tin. You can also print out a name and add it to the diorama.
Jonathan Fong is the author of “Flowers That Wow” and “Parties That Wow,” and host of “Style With a Smile” on YouTube. You can see more of his do-it-yourself projects at jonathanfongstyle.com.
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