My mint tin creation

I thought I would make some gifts this year to save a little money, but also to do something fun and creative. I decided to do the marble magnets project I found on not martha. She also gives the suggestion of putting a set of 6 in a mint tin. I have a TON of mint tins lying around, so I figured this would be a perfect gift. So, I found some ideas on how to decorate a mint tin from a few places (infarrantly creative, spinning-jennie.) The first thing I did was spray paint the tins. My spray paint skills are not very good, especially when it comes to these mint tins. I got the top and the bottom covered just fine, but the edges were tough. And the paint ended up scraping off when I closed the tin anyway, so I decided in the future to not worry so much about the edges.

Anyway, I got the first one done. I'm not completely satisfied with it. I tried to cut corners and hot glue the rick-rack on and I don't like the way it turned out, so next time I'll glue it on with a something that doesn't dry so fast and doesn't go on so thick. Also, the paintbrush I used was a cheap one I had on hand (because after the craft store trip I realized I forgot to get something to apply the mod podge with) and the "hairs" kept falling out into the mod podge. I tried to get them all, but I noticed when I saw these photos that I missed a couple. :( And, of course, the paint on the bottom scraped off and looks bad when it's open, but when it's closed up, it looks pretty cute.








Some other mint tin ideas I may try later:

Beauty Kit

Christmas trees

I've always preferred the low-maintenance of an artificial tree.  The artificial tree I've had since 1992 finally started to look hopeless (it was a really cheap one to begin with) and so we've gotten a real tree for the last two years.  I have to admit, the variability in shape and size of getting a real tree each year is really interesting.  However, we're horrible about taking the tree down in a timely manner, so the last two years we've had these decorated brown twiggy messes come February (ok, maybe a little exaggeration.)  Anyway, I would like to get a new artificial tree, but now that I've seen the really good, expensive ones, I can hardly go out and buy a $50 Walmart special. 

Balsam Hill Christmas Tree Co. makes some of the most amazing looking trees I've yet to see pictures of.  But they are not cheap.  If money were no object, I'd get the Aspen Silver Fir or the California Baby Redwood.  It's cost us ~$70-80 each for the last 2 trees we bought.  So, since this tree has a 10 year warranty on it, I can justify spending $759, right?  lol.

We've already blown our Christmas budget this year, so I may just see what I can do with my old Walmart special tree.  If I work on it, maybe I can get it to look nice enough to get by one more year, then see if I can get a nice new artificial tree in January for cheap.