Eco-Tin

Today's 365 Cards Challenge is "Recycled Elements". In honor of Earth Day we are to use as many recycled items as possible. I knew that I was going to start with this fabulous tin that was recycled to me by a co-worker {Hi KQ!}. It was filled with Green Tea mints from Trader Joes...What a great foundation to work with...I love the green and decided to bring that out by using some scraps that I've been stashing. I'll be honest, in the past I've given away my scraps...I typically don't use them. Well, I'm making the effort to use them now and this project is perfect since it is small in scale.

What better paper to use than Amy Butler's Lotus line? Seriously, that stuff couldn't be any more gorgeous...check out the "feet" on the tin...Back in the 90's I was into making jewelry...In true "Amy" form I bought a ton of stuff but the hobby didn't last very long....I toyed with the idea of getting rid of all my supplies but never did...good thing I didn't...I dug around my bin and found these recycled beads...we'd buy clearance beaded jewelry and cut them apart for their beads...the beads {aka feet} were from one such necklace.

I fussy cut the lotus bloom from one of the patterns....crinkled it up gently to give it a shabby look.


Here's the interior...I lined the tin with more Amy Butler goodness and added some petite gift tags...I decided against cutting up all the gorgeous May Arts ribbon and stringing them through the tags...I put it together more like a kit.

I popped in a couple Amy Butler wrapped nuggets..who doesn't love chocolate?

Here's the tin all ready to go to her new home...yup, I ended up recycling it back to my co-worker..lol. She was stunned to see that I dolled it up. She said that she didn't give the tin to me to have me give it back to her but I told her that it was my thank you and to keep on chowing those mints.....

The tin is all cozy in a glassine bag...I went ahead and put together a tag just to use on the exterior packaging. I talked to my co-worker and told her that the tags would be sweet to tuck into hubby's wallet with a message...or maybe inside a laptop...a briefcase....you name it.