Transform Your Home Decor with a DIY Lantern Made From Re-Purposed Cookie Tin Container!

Hello Creative Gems, welcome back to Creativity and if you're new here, I'm Sandy. So I had a really great holiday last month and was gifted numerous tins of cookies, all of which by the way are cleaned out already. The cookies were delicious, but now I'm left with these cookie tins. I actually saved several of them because I knew I wanted to craft with them. This one is rectangular and as it turns out it has a beautiful silver design all over. So I figured that would be a great base for making a lantern. But if you know me, I love bling, so I'm going to kick it up a notch by blinging out this silver tin with some rhinestone trim. This rhinestone trim has some glass and crystal pieces that are so beautiful and the trim is self-adhesive so I don't have to mess with any glue. Peeling off the backing, you can see how sticky the trim is, so we'll go ahead and measure out how much we need. We're going to start by trimming out the lid. You'll notice that this trim is actually wider than what we need, but no worries because this trim can be easily cut to size. So I'll go ahead first to wind this around the lid to get a rough idea of how much trim we'll be using for the lid. And by the way, if you're interested in any of the embellishments I use in today's craft tutorial, there will be links to everything in the description box in case you like something you see. Once I know how much trim I need, I'll cut it to size both the length and the width. You can see how easily the trim will be able to cut. And my recommendation is to cut the trim to size first before removing the backing. That way, you can save any excess for a future craft project. In fact, here on my channel, I try not to waste anything because things just keep getting more expensive every day. So if I can reuse something or repurpose it, I'll store it with the rest of my craft supplies until I get a great craft idea. Once the trim is cut to size, peel away the backing and then you can start applying the trim to the lid. The adhesive is actually quite strong, but since we're applying it to something that is metal, you can gently peel it off if you need to adjust or reposition the trim. Here you can also see that I'm using the trim to conveniently cover some print indicating the best before date, so that works out well. Once the lid is done, we're going to do the exact same thing with the rim of the container as well. And while we work on this, I would like to take a moment to thank you for tuning in to today's craft project. If you enjoy glam home decor and DIY crafts on a budget, please let me know by hitting the subscribe button. And if you like what you see today, please give me a thumbs up as well so the YouTube gods will continue to recommend my channel to other viewers like you. Ok, so with the container done, I have turned it upside down because I want to give our lantern a tiny bit more height by adding some legs to the bottom. For that, I have 4 small silver ornament balls left over from Christmas. I'll need to remove the caps off each ornament ball. You can do that easily by gently pulling the caps off. I actually save the caps because I like to use them to make knobs for my other crafts. The caps actually make a great base and then you can insert a diamond shaped gem inside. Now we'll go ahead and snip off the ends. Be careful with this step though because sometimes the little pieces fly out all over the place and you don't want to get any pieces in your eyes. If you have safety goggles, that would be ideal. So now I'm going to go ahead and hot glue each ornament ball to the bottom of the tin container, one on each of the 4 corners. So with that done, now we're going to build out the pillars for our lantern. I saved these cardboard rolls from old rolls of contact paper and I think they're going to be perfect for our lantern. These cardboard rolls are actually pretty rigid so they'll be strong enough to stand upright. They're just a little ugly so we're going to cover all the cardboard rolls with some silver metallic contact paper. What I have here is some contact paper that is reflective so it will be perfect for our glam lantern. It's actually the exact width we need to cover the cardboard rolls so I'll just need to measure out the length. And I'm actually using this paper cutter because I want to have a perfectly straight cut for each piece. Of course, if you don't have one of these paper cutters, go ahead with a good pair of scissors or even an exacto knife. And by the way, if you don't have any of this contact paper, you can find a link to my favorite embellishments and craft tools in the description box. In the description box, you'll be able to find this contact paper as well as other embellishment options. Alternatively, you can simply paint these cardboard rolls and maybe add some silver glitter to them. There are many options you could go with to embellish these cardboard rolls. So once I have my first piece cut out, I'll use that as a template to cut out the remaining three pieces I'll need. And now that I have all four pieces cut out, we're ready to roll the cardboard rolls into them. There's a wax backing you'll want to peel away and then carefully place our cardboard roll onto the sticky part of the contact paper and roll it until the entire cardboard roll is covered. If necessary, you can also trim any excess off the ends. And in case you weren't aware, the silver metallic contact paper comes with a clear plastic that you'll want to peel away so you can really see the mirror-like effect. So we'll go ahead and do that. And while I do that, comment down below with the words cookie tin and let me know if you have ever repurposed any of your tin containers before. And if you have, what have you made with them? For me, I have saved quite a few different tin containers and have made flower boxes, jewelry boxes and keepsake boxes. It's a fun and very affordable way to make beautiful home decor pieces and nothing goes to waste. So now we need to figure out a way to adhere the cardboard pillars to the tin container. And what I thought of was to stick a piece of foam inside one end of the cardboard roll. That way we can apply glue to the foam and have that stick to the container. I've cut off about an inch of foam and now I'm sticking a metal ornament hook that I have unfolded into the center of the foam piece. This will help make it easier for me to place the foam piece into the end of the cardboard roll. I'll apply a bit of hot glue first and then I'll position the foam piece inside, making sure that I have a bit of the foam piece sticking out the edge of the cardboard roll. I'll let that cool off while I work on the remaining cardboard rolls. And if you're still with me, drop me a comment with the words tin container and let me know if you think you'll try to make this lantern. So far, it has cost me nothing since the tin container and the cardboard rolls are both items I am repurposing. Okay, so now we're ready to affix these pillars onto our tin container. I'm going to use some Fix-All because it is a very strong adhesive that will provide a very good firm and lasting hold. I'll also add some hot glue because hot glue cools quickly and once cooled, it sets immediately so there's very little waiting time. The only tricky part of this step is to make sure that when you're adhering each pillar to the container, that you're standing them up perfectly upright and straight. The truth is, I actually had to redo a couple of pillars because when I placed them onto the tin container, I placed a couple of them on a slant by mistake. Luckily, I noticed right away so I ripped them out completely right away before the hot glue sat in. And then I was able to re-glue them. Don't worry if you don't get it perfect the first time around. Just be careful and check each pillar after you glue them down. So now with all four pillars erected, I'm going to go back in and clean things up. Unfortunately, I got a little messy so there's some glue that is exposed around the edges of each pillar. I tried to scrape off as much as I could but to clean things up better, I'm going to apply a string of silver beads around each pillar to cover up any residual glue stains. Now I have heard that some of you are not a big fan of these silver beads that I craft with. So if that's you, feel free to skip this step or use a different trim for your pillars. The idea is to give a cleaner look to the edges and seams and I like to use these silver beads because they have a mirror-like finish which naturally goes very well with the rest of the silver lantern we're making. To apply the string of silver beads, I'll adhere them to the pillars with a little bit of hot glue and see how easily they adhere and now you cannot see any glue stains at all. I think this looks much better now and if you're still with me, drop me a comment and let me know if you prefer the silver beads in or out. Alright, so with the pillars done now, I want to make a little candle holder to place inside the lantern. For that, I'm going to use this round framed mirror I found at the Dollar Tree. You can actually use any type of mirror you may have on hand as long as it fits inside the lantern. To embellish this mirror so it better matches the lantern, we're going to cover the black frame with these mini mirror tiles. These mini mirror tiles are self-adhesive so we won't have to mess with any glue. Simply cut them to size and then you can peel off the wax backing to apply them directly to the frame. Now if you don't want to embellish the frame with these mini mirror tiles, you could opt to paint the frame instead, cover it with silver glitter, apply a strip of rhinestone trim to it or use your favourite craft paper to cover the frame. Alternatively, you could just leave the frame as it is as well but if you know me, I'll typically take any opportunity to bling things out. Now if you're left with a gap that isn't big enough to fit any more mini mirror tiles, simply cover it up with a tiny bit of rhinestone trim like I'm doing here. And for the rest of the frame, I'm going to apply some clear round gem stickers. These stickers come in strips so it's very quick and easy to apply them all along the rim of the mirror. And if you don't have any of these gem stickers or want to do something even quicker, just go in with a silver metallic paint marker. Okay so here's what our candle holder looks like now. It's quite pretty and the mirror tiles really match the silver theme of our lantern. Let's go ahead and place it inside to see what it looks like. And there we go, it fits perfectly inside and it looks really nice. Our last step to finish off this lantern is to make a dome for the top of the lantern. I have this square silver bowl from the Dollar Tree and I love this bowl because of course it has a mirror-like finish and also because it has a very pretty scalloped design on the rim of the bowl. And not only that, this bowl comes in different sizes. Here's the matching bowl in a smaller size and the great thing about these smaller bowls is they come in a set of four. They both have a similar design with a scalloped rim which I find quite unique. So what we're going to do first is to place the bigger of the two bowls upside down onto the lid. Before I secure it into place, I want to see what part of the bowl will make direct contact with the lid because the bowl has a scalloped edge. Once I know where the contact is being made, then I'll know where to apply the hot glue. It looks like it's literally just the four corners of the bowl that will touch the lid so that's where I'm applying the hot glue. You'll notice that I'm only applying a very tiny bit of hot glue. There are two reasons for that. One, I want to minimize any extra hot glue getting messed up on the lid. And two, since the bowl is plastic, the hot glue will actually adhere to the bowl and to the tin very well so we really don't need a lot. Now when placing the bowl to the lid, try to center it onto the lid as much as possible. Here I'm just eyeballing it because it would be very difficult to try and measure it with a ruler since the rim of the bowl has a scalloped shape. And with that done, I'll position the smaller bowl upside down right on top of the bigger one. And just like the first bowl, I'll place the smaller bowl onto the larger bowl to see where the two bowls make contact and then that's where we'll apply the hot glue. And here you can see some of the hot glue through the gaps between the two bowls so I'm going to take a string of silver beads that we used earlier on the pillars and cover the seams and gaps between the two bowls. I'll follow the shape of the bowl to apply the hot glue and then position the silver beads. Once the silver beads are applied, you can no longer see any gap nor any hot glue. And I think the beads actually make the dome look like it's all one piece. Now with the two bowls done, I'm going to go ahead and apply another string of silver beads to the outer rim of the larger bowl where it meets the tin lid. It's just a little design detail that I think will keep the edges clean and give the lid of our lantern a more cohesive look. Here's what our lid looks like now all blinged out. To cap off the lid, I'll add a finial to the top. The finial will actually be another silver ornament ball, the same one we used for the legs of the lantern. We'll remove the silver cap like we did before. What we'll want to do is place the ornament ball to the top of the dome. And rather than cutting the stem off the ball and hot gluing it directly to the dome, I'm going to use the tip of my hot glue gun to create a small hole at the top of the dome. The hole needs to be just large enough so we can place the stem of the ornament ball through the hole. But we don't want it to be too big or the ornament ball will not stay in place. So it took me some trial and error before I got the hole to be just the right size. And now with the ornament ball inserted through the hole, it's not going to go anywhere because there was some residual hot glue that got released around the hole that will help keep the ornament ball in place. I can pick up the lid using the finial and everything stays intact. And now let's go ahead and place the lid onto our lantern. How pretty is that? I have placed three pillar candles of different heights inside the lantern on top of the candle holder that we made. And to make sure there are no accidents, I would recommend sticking with battery operated LED candles just to be on the safe side. Here I have the lantern sitting by my fireplace and I think it looks quite pretty. But we can also pick this lantern up and place it onto a side table like this one and then it becomes a beautiful centerpiece. Comment down below and let me know what you think of this lantern. 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