Travel Kits

I admit, a part of me wanted to buy new tins that were flat on the outside so I could design a cute sticker for the top, but the practical part of me decided to just use the Altoids tin cases I already had (since it seemed wasteful not to).

I have reused tins without changing anything about them (since it’s just quick and easy), but this time I wanted to do something to personalize them a bit. My first thought was to remove the paint from the tins to create a blank canvas.

So I picked up some paint remover from a home improvement store. In retrospect, an aerosol can was probably not the best way to go because the spray may not have been able to reach every nook and cranny of the cases. I tried multiple times to get the paint out from the grooves, but it was not to be. (Plus, I was sort of using makeshift tools to remove the paint, which probably didn’t help.) So I had to be okay with the fact that I wasn’t going to get every paint molecule from the tin’s surface; I accepted that it just wasn’t going to be perfect.

Then I made small stickers to fit on the flat area on the top of the tin. I always keep a tin with band-aids and pills to alleviate headaches (and colds when I have them) in my bag, so a First Aid Kit tin seemed appropriate. For the second tin, I decided it could be used as a Sewing Kit, since the cheap travel sewing kit I have has a broken plastic case.

Overall, I’m happy with the way the two tins came out; they’re simple and clean looking. And most importantly, they’ll be useful.