Do you have Craft Tact ?

Ever had an odd shaped container or box especially nice and sturdy and wanted to use it for a gift or maybe even to keep it as or for a keepsake? Well here's a cool way of upcycling various size boxes like those little Godiva or Altoids mints tins

The length of time & price varies depending on the size of the project as well as items and where you purchase them. You can use almost anything, if you are using real wood, be sure it's clean and at least has one -2 coats of (dry) polyurethane on it. I do recommend using Tins that come in the holiday baskets like the cookies, or bread sticks or those weird 'cookies'.

I haven't tried this with a cigar box, but Cigar boxes are great use for storage, there's a variety of sizes, some are even big or deep enough you can fit a book! There's a local cigar store here that I can get them for $1 each though when I go to get 1, I end up with a few and the guy usually takes a dollar or 2 off. (It doesn't hurt to ask at the ones in your local area if they have any in any you can take off their hands, or if they sell them (You can even offer a to give them a couple of dollars. They can either say no or it will give them an idea.)

The cigar boxes come in all sorts of sizes, and designs and are great to reuse for storage or just as a trinket/jewelry box! I have gotten some that are nice enough that I don't know if I could use the craft paper on them, or paint them etc. They''re all still up in my closet! Though one has the origami cranes I've made so far in it.

I've done many small tins this way and re-used them for gifts that I made (like earrings, bracelet whatever I come up with) The cylindrical ones I've done so far one in which I decoupaged I use for storage on my dresser. It has some little decorations like acorns, some beach stones, and the other has incense in it.

Instructions:

1. Measure item to be decorated.

2. Cut out the right size of tact paper

3. Peel part of backing away

4. Start tacking to your item with this & as you stick the paper to your item be sure to keep it smooth keep it from bubbling, otherwise you have to pull of that part and try again. as you tact the 'paper' to your item remember you clear it away from the backing.

5. Keep in mind to try & keep any lines that are in the design (like if it looks like tile, keep the lines, lined up together esp. at the end so it's harder to see the crease.I've made a few things with a marble design and a shelf as well and some people thought it was real marble!

6. If you have a cylinder like container cut out a piece for the top as well. But you need to spray paint the top. I've done one I'll include here where I' spray painted or 'drizzled' a bit of gold paint on the marble. I got the idea from a huge mirror my Aunt Millie had in (I think it was) the living when I was little

7. Now you are all done. If you have a cylinder shaped object you can use it for trinkets, as a pen holder on your desk, a utensil holder for your picnic (or dinning room) table and so many more ideas!

Time required: varies

Difficulty: easy

Cost: varies

Materials:

• Tact paper (aka Shelf Paper)
• something to decorate like Cigar boxes and Tins, (especially cylindrical tins, they look great with the marble design on it) etc

Tools:

• Scissors or boxcutter
• ruler
• something to keep 'bubbles' out
• something heavy to lay on top (if needed)

To me the cylinders look best with the marble design even if it's a tile look; however a wood design maybe only if it looked more like the real thing and was a square tin than it might make it look like a 4x4 post. That would be great to give a carpenter or a businessman if you could match the desk color. The link provided is a bing search to show you, and look much like the real grains than I have found.

That's another thing, when you tact the paper on: be sure the grain goes the long way and not around so it looks like a piece of wood, if you do it around it won't have the effect of looking like a real piece of wood.