*Grand* Decoupage iPod Case- Made from an Altoids Tin

Here's a little Decoupage tutorial using Mod Podge and flowered paper napkins

 to turn an Altoids tin into a hard case for your iPod Nano or Mini.  

I have kept my iPod in an Altoids tin for years.

 It's not pretty but it works-

 it holds my ear buds and it stays safe in the chaos at the bottom of my purse.

I have thought many times about how I could make it nicer.  

(Or at least look different so I knew which one had Altoids in it and which one had the iPod!)

I started with a clean, empty Altoids tin, 

but there are many other brands and sizes that could be used,

and they could hold lots of other little things...

I decide to spray paint it and then decoupage it

 using some flowers cut out from paper napkins.

I had some green spray paint tucked away in the crafty cabinet.

And some Mod Podge... 

I happen to like the glossy finish, but a matte finish is available, too.

 And then I dug some pretty flowered napkins out of the crafty cabinet.

I had been saving these for the perfect "someday" project.  

This was it.  

Time to sacrifice a few of my treasured napkins for this project.

It only took one of the napkins because the front and back and insides were also printed.

So I have one pink flower and one orange flower 

from the same napkin to use on the top and the bottom of the Altoids tin.

I spray painted the tin green, trying hard to do a very light coat, 

something I have never really been successful at.  

Fortunately for this project, the surface does not have to be perfect 

because the decoupage texture hides a lot of things...

I let it dry and I opened and closed it a few times while it hardened 

so the hinges didn't get painted in place.

Some tins like this one have an embossed label and pattern on the top 

and I didn't want that to show through the flowers, 

so I glued a few layers of plain white tissue torn from the same napkin 

over the Altoids letters to smooth them out, sort of like spackling them.

You can skip this step if the lid of your tin is smooth.

I let this dry while I cut out the flowers,

 leaving a tiny border around the edges.  

I love doing this part...  it's kinda mindless.

This really does not have to be too neat, as the tissue frays slightly 

when you paint the Mod Podge on and the edges soften.

I repeated this step with the orange flower.  

Most paper napkins are three ply, 

and so you need to remove two of the plies to use only the top, printed layer.  

One layer fell right off when I cut the flower out and the second layer was easy to peel off, too.

Now the two flowers are ready to decoupage onto the tin.  

The fun part!

I painted a thin layer of Mod Podge on the tin right over the white layers I had put on 

and then laid a flower over the top.  

I applied more Mod Podge to the entire flower, 

working from the center to the edges 

and trying to make my brush strokes go in the direction of the flower petals. 

I let the flower petals overhang the edges.

I let this dry til I could handle it- that took just a few minutes.

Then I applied the second flower to the bottom of the tin.

I let the first coat dry 

and then I added several more layers of Mod Podge to the outside of the tin, 

allowing time to dry between coats.

 This will help protect the case 

from all of the sharp, dangerous objects at the bottom of my purse...

I love how these turned out! 

I made two different ones - one with an embossed lid 

and one with a smooth lid so you can see the difference.

 

It cost me nothing since I had all of the supplies on hand.  

I feel so virtuous.   

I think I'll go shopping now.

Linking to
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style