Altoids tins are one of those icons of upcycling. Even folks who aren’t into crafting often reuse these handy containers for things like storing change or organizing small knick knacks. With a little bit of crafty love, you can turn that humble container into all sorts of fun creations!
1. To Go Candle
If you’ve got a bunch of old candles that have seen better days, you can recycle that old wax into a new one! Just get a couple of new tealight-sized wicks, place them in your Altoids tin, and melt and pour the remaining wax right in. Green Upgrader shows you more on recycling old candles.
[Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by akanekal]
About Becky Striepe
I use a re-purposed Altoids tin in my purse as a mini-first aid kit.
I’ve also made a kit for my son to carry with him when he goes on Scout outings.
It keeps bandages, disinfectant wipes, tweezers, and small doses of things like ibuprofen and allergy medications conveniently contained.
Loved the mini toolbox! Will definitely try that. I recycle altoid tins all the time.
I either remove the paint with nail polish remover, or I spray paint them and decoupage a name on the lid and make “survival” kits for stocking stuffers with things in them like: safety pins, a mini sewing kit, travel size ibuprofen. You can basically empty out your catchall drawer full of misc items and organize it all into 2-3 tins and give them away.
As a joke, I made containers for the men last year with their names on it and gave them a list of suggestions as to what they could use them for. Some of the suggestions were very funny.
Thanks for the post, I enjoyed it!
We use them in scouts to make first response first aid kits. They are a perfect size for bandaids, an few antiseptic wipes, some gauze, etc. And they fit nicely in packs or the pockets on scout uniforms.
Great ideas, Becky! I, too, love to upcycle metal tin containers. Please feel free to post my images for any of my little altars found at http://www.sacredartimages.com specifically at – http://janiemillsart-images.blogspot.com/p/nichos-and-altars.html
Love it!! How clever. I make handcrafted jewelry and use the tins as gift boxes. Simply cover in some pretty paper, line with cotten and you have the perfect little gift box!
I use them at my vanity for jewelry and for powders such as eye shadows. For jewelry, I put a little sticker on the outside that says “silver hoops” or “bracelets”, etc. I found that it helps to put in a small piece of shelf liner in the bottom (the webby kind that keeps things from sliding around). I stack them in an old wooden soda crate that has been painted and put on the wall.
For the eye shadows, I was able to pop some of my favorites out of the original containers and stick them down in the altoid tin. This makes all of the colors immediately accessible and keeps the powdery dust in one area rather than all over my vanity top.
I’ll post a picture of it on my blog! I’ve used it for years and forgot how unique is! It’s a creative result from the last big economic downturn (1980′s).
These tins make a neat little first aid kit for travel. Add a few band aids, antibiotic ointment, cotton puffs, tweezers, cuticle scissors…
I use old altoid tins to hold crayons and I keep these in my car with a coloring book to keep my son busy on long car rides. The tins will hold around 8 crayons each.