Hello and welcome back to Out Standing in the Field. This week we are talking about How to Make a Holiday Trinket Gift Box From a Recycled Tin Can.

As we are sure you are aware by now, if you have read any of our other talks, we love to recycle, reuse, and upscale. Reusing things not only helps the environment but gives us a handmade, personalized item to either gift to someone or use for ourselves.

Trinket Boxes are an excellent craft to get kids involved with. They can pick out their own colors, themes, and accents to make a unique box of their own.

Of course, adult supervision is needed when working with any can opener or hot glue gun. Some simple safety rules should be given before kids start as well.

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Part One:

Supplies you will need to make a holiday trinket gift box from a recycled tin can

Part Two:

How to Steps to make a holiday trinket gift box from a recycled tin can

Part One:

Supplies you will need to make a holiday trinket gift box from a recycled tin can

To make a holiday trinket gift box from recycled tin can you will need:

1. a tin can

2. a safety can opener

3. something to cover the can with

4. hinges of some kind or not

5. lid topper or not

1. the tin can

First, you will need to save a tin can. This seems pretty straightforward. Next time you open a can of beans, peas, pineapples, or whatever just keep the can. Be sure to wash and dry the can well.

2. safety can opener

If you are going to keep the tin can for crafting, you will need to use a safety can opener. A safety can opener leaves the edges of the can and lid smooth so you do not cut yourself. This is not like the old-fashioned can opener that left ragged edges. Safety can openers can be bought just about anywhere these days.

3. The covering

Here, you can paint the can or cover it with paper, a plastic bag, or whatever you like. You can leave the can in its original color if that is the look you are going for.

4. Hinges are good for trinket boxes but not all boxes need hinges. Again, this is totally up to you, if you want to add hinges to your trinket box or not. It all depends on the look you are going for.

5. A lid topper can be helpful when it comes to opening the trinket box. But lid toppers are not required. The lid will come off just by hand. So again, to top or not to top is up to you.

6. A hot glue gun or another kind of glue. As always when using hot glue guns be very careful or you will burn yourself and get hot glue on you.

If you have kids working on these projects, be sure to have an adult handle the hot glue gun. Although, as an adult, I have hot-glued myself many times. That is not fun for a kid or an adult.

Part Two:

How to Steps to make a holiday trinket gift box from a recycled tin can

We made several different trinket boxes and all in different themes and made in different ways. You can see how we made each one and how each is made differently.

We used several different kinds and sizes of tin cans. There are tall and thin or short and wide. As usual, it just depends on what look you are going for and what you have on hand to work with.

As stated before, use only cans that have been opened with a safety can opener. And be sure to clean and dry your tin cans before you start. You do not want to give someone a trinket box as a gift and have it smell like cat food or tuna.

Box 1: American Flag

step one: First we did a quick, light spray of clear spray paint onto the bare can base. This makes the tin a bit more sticky so the tape will stick to it better.

step two: We used red, white, and blue duct tape to cover the base of our tin can.

step three: We used nice blue spray paint to cover the lid of the tin can. The blue spray paint was already a gloss spray so no top coat was needed.

You can see in the pic, this combo of tape and paint gave the American Flag trinket box a nice two-tone look.

Sometimes you want all the parts to have the same color and texture. But mixing up the colors and textures can give you a more unique look.

We choose not to put any hinges or lid toppers on this one. You can open the lid easily enough and this was a good look.

Box 2: Gift Box Blue

step one: again a couple of coats of blue spray paint on both the base and the lid.

step two: Using a thin, blue ribbon with a silver design, we made outside hinges. First, we folded the ribbon over on top of itself to make a clean line and hot glued the folds in place. Then we hot glued the ribbons from the top side of the lid to the outside of the can. This makes a simple but effective and useful hinge. You can pop the lid off and let it hang at the back of the can.

This is another short, wide trinket box. It is good for pretty much any occasion and plain enough to use for anyone.

Box 3: Gift Box white

step one: we gave both the lid and the top a couple of coats of white spray paint.

step two: we made a bow from a piece of thick, black, and white polka dot ribbon. Then a nice bow tie was added to the ribbon.

step three: We made the hinges just like we did for the blue trinket box. But this time we hot glued the hinges onto the inside of the trinket box rather than on the outside as we had done with the blue box. The hinges on the inside give this box a smooth, straight line.

This one can be used as a gift box for Christmas, birthday, graduation, baby shower, anniversary, or pretty much whatever event you have coming up.

Box 4: Fall Acorn

step one: We used hammered copper spray paint on both the base and the lid.

step two: We added a large, acorn-shaped, jingle bell to the top and hot glued it in place. The acorn color matched the hammered metal spray paint that we used for the can.

step three: We were undecided about what to add as accent or trim so we went with glitter. Once again we gave the now painted tin can a coat of clear spray paint. Then we sprinkled on the glitter. This helps the glitter to stick to the already painted tin. After, we gave the tin another coat of clear spray paint to be sure the glitter stays in place.

We added glitter to the top the same way we did the base with a couple of coats of clear spray paint to keep the glitter in place.

Glitter is always a good accent for most décor. Of course, not very many boys or men want glittery gifts so keep that in mind.

As always we recommend Today Glitter for all your crafting, beauty or party needs. Today Glitter is environmentally friendly as well as kid safe and pet safe. If you are going to bling things out, do it responsibly.

As did not add any hinges to this one. It looked really cool just as it was.

Here you have a blingy, eye-catching fall piece. It will do well on a mantel or as a table centerpiece.

Box 5: Halloween Bats

step one: A nice thin coat of white spray paint was put on the tin can. The coat was intentionally not thick and not fully covered to leave a mottled look with the base color.

step two: Using a wide, wired ribbon with glittery bats we made a Halloween theme. The ribbon was hot glued in place at the start and then hot glued in places as it was rolled around the can. And then it was fixed in place a the end with hot glue.

step three: We added a small, bat sticker to the lid for accent. The lid had been unevenly coated like the base for the mottled look.

step four: we added a dash of silver glitter to the lid to add accent and match with the black glittery bats on the ribbon. Then we gave the top a good coating of clear spray paint to be sure the bat sticker and the glitter stays in place.

Again, Today Glitter is always on hand for all of our blingy needs.

Here you have a simple but classic Halloween bat theme for all of us Bat Lovers.

Box: 6 Halloween Mummy

step one: a nice thick coat of white spray paint was put on first.

step two: A quick spritz of red spray paint was done for the top accent spray.

step three: The mummy face was originally a Halloween glow ring. The ring was dismantled and the mummy face was used here. The other parts were put into a keep-for-later box just in case they can be used for some other project.

step four: The mummy’s face was coated with glow-in-the-dark spray paint.

step five: The now dry mummy face was hot glued to the tin can to make a front view.

As you can see, no hinges were made for this trinket box. Extra things would have ruined the look.

Here we have a cool, creepy Halloween trinket box for all the classic horror buffs.

Box 7: Steampunk Steel

step one: A couple of smooth coats of hammered gun metal grey were put on the base and lid of the tin can.

step two: Two metal steampunk cogs were hot glued to the center of the lid.

No hinges as that would have messed up the Steampunk look. And we could not figure out how to add real metal hinges to the round can. If the can had been square, it would have gotten real metal hinges to add some steampunk accent. But, as it is, this is a really cool-looking trinket box.

Box 8: Plain Red

step one: First we put several smooth coats of red spray paint on both the base and the lid.

step two: When the base coat was good and dry, we added a final coat of clear spray paint to give it a glossy look.

We did not add anything else to this tin can trinket box. This is a simple, plain trinket box but with a bright, happy color. It will make a great centerpiece on a Christmas table or can just be used as a “stuff keeper”.

Box 9: Plain tin can

If you want a more rustic, country look you can just leave the tin cans as they are. Take the labels off, clean them up and make sure they are dry. There you have a plain, metal can that will hold stuff.  The tin can, can be used with or without the lid, depending on what you use it for.

If you want a farmer-country look, you can leave the labels on the tin cans. To do this be careful when you wash the can out and do not mess up the labels. Then use clear spray paint or decoupage to seal and protect the label.

The look of your holiday trinket gift box all depends on what you are going for. You can spruce it up or plain it down any way you like it. That is one of the joys of DIY, make it look exactly the way you want it. You can make a trinket box tin can for any occasion, color, theme, or event.

We hope you have enjoyed this talk on how to make a holiday trinket gift box from a recycled tin can. Try it out and see what unique look you can make with your trinket boxes.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.