#MakeIt Monday - Make a Business Card Holder with a Recycled Altoids Tin

Check it Out!  As an Origami Owl Independent Designer I have new business cards.  If you have a business you know how important they are. So when I got to thinking about how I would display them at Jewelry Bars and other events, I didn't want a plain old standard looking holder.  

Y'all know by now that I am all about recycling and I have a few Altoids tins that were being used to hold picture hangers, screws and other small hardware. I realized it was the perfect size to not only hold my cards for transport but to display them.  
Here is how I made it.

My supplies for this project included:

• Altoids Tin
• Scrapbook paper
• String
• Sequin ribbon
• Owl Stickers
• Letter Stickers
• Mini Bows
• Adhesive
• Glue Dots

The very first thing that needed to be done was to clean up that Altoids Tin.  I wiped the inside and outside clean and used alcohol to remove the marker and any grime that had built up. I had a few different colored tins and chose the blue one so I wouldn't have to paint it to match.

I found a great little scrap pad that was full of Owl papers at WalMart marked down so I chose 3 different patterns from the scrap pad and cut out 3 pieces to fit the top and insides of the tin.  I also cut 2 strips to go along the outside edge of the tin.  To make it easier to glue down the strips I ran them through my Xyron Mini sticker maker.  I absolutely love this thing! 

This is what the inside looks like with the cut out pieces inside. I used a corner rounder to cut the corners so they fit perfectly.

I added the strips to the outside edge and glued down the top piece allowing a little of that blue tin to show.

Now I wanted the tin to stay open without having to prop it up with anything so I decided to add a few pieces of string inside so that when opened the lid would stay up.  I used glue dots to hold the string in place on the inside of the lid first.  I then glued down the paper to cover the string. Propping the lid to the open position I glued the string to the bottom inside as shown in the photo above.  Then I added the paper to cover it.  I can still close the lid with the string inside.

I decorated the outside lid with an owl sticker and letters to say Hello.  I decorated it so that when the tin is open the Hello is right side up.  A super easy trick to get the letters to line up evenly and exactly where you want them is to use a ruler or in my case my little crease tool.  (I know it's a painting thingy but it works perfectly as a bone folder.) Just line your word up so the bottoms hang off.  This allows you to position and measure it out so you know exactly where you want the word to go and that you have enough space for it.    

I am super excited about the way it turned out and can't wait to display it on my table with all my Origami Owl products.  The really great thing about this little card holder is that it is also magnetic so you could make some removable decorations out of magnets.