About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 2h00

Take You Favorite Photos Everywhere
I came up with this sweet idea for a kind of traveling album to enter into the contest to win the MINI Diana camera :) So fingers crossed, lol!

Turn an old mint tin in to a traveling photo album.
Now you can take your favorite photos everywhere!

Supplies you'll need -
*Empty Tin
*Sand Paper
*Polymer Clay
*Diamond Glaze/Other Glaze (Optional)
*Acrylic Paint & Brush (Optional)
*Thumb Tack
*2 Large Jump Rings
*7 inches of Cord/Ribbon/Chain (whatever you want as a camera strap)
*Printer & Paper (To print your photos)
*Clear Packing Tape

This project takes a little bit of time to complete because you have a lot of waiting around for things to bake, cool, and dry. But its totally worth it :D

Posted by Princess Pam-attitude from Pocatello, Idaho, United States • Published 26th May 2012 • See Princess Pam-attitude 's 322 projects »

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Step 1
Step 1-

Take your lid off your tin.
Clean & dry the tin.
Use the sandpaper to take off the paint and shine up the bottom part of the tin.
Clean & dry it again.
Step 2
Step 2-

Trace the top of the tin on to paper and sketch out the design of your lid.
If its a really complex looking camera, try only drawing on the major features.
When working with your clay, start with the lightest colored clay first.
Roll out larger pieces of clay, lay it on your tin and then trim it to size.
When the top design is all finished your can cover the sides of the top part of the tin buy rolling out a long "snake" of clay, then using a rolling pin to flatten it out.
Places the flattened "snake" around the sides, and trim it to fit.

Bake & cool the tin.
Keep an eye on the tin, if you bake it too long the lighter clay will burn and turn black.

If it does change colors go on to Step 3, if it doesn't skip to Step 4.
Step 3
Step 3

This step if for fixing the mistake of burning your clay (like I did, lol)

After your tin is cool, use acrylic paint to touch up the lighter clay that burned. On mine the white parts turned brown and the blue parts turned black. So I just painted over them.
Step 4
Step 4-

If you have any tiny features that were too small/detailed to make from clay you can paint them on with acrylic paint. Like in mine I painted on the word "MINI" around my lens.

When all your paint is thoroughly dried, use your glaze to thinly cover all the clay. This will help protect it and make it look really polished and professional. You can use modge podge or other glazes if you don't have diamond glaze.

Let everything dry for 24 hrs.
Step 5
Step 5-

Use your thumbtack and punch 2 holes about 1/4 inch apart on each of the shorter sides of the bottom half of the tin.
Make sure you put the holes toward the bottom of the sides, so that when you put the lid on, it can close all the way.
Open and bend your jump rings, so they go in one hole and out the other one.
Attach your camera strap piece to the jump rings. Loop it through each one and either glue or sew it into place. I used a suede cord and thin wire to wrap it and hold it into place.
Step 6
Step 6-

Put your lid back on and make sure everything closes and fits properly.
Step 7
Step 7-

Measure the inner dimensions of your tin.
Subtract about 1/4 inch from each side.
Write those down and use those numbers to determine the size your photos should be when printed out.
In a computer program (I just used Word) layout your photos in order you want them to be printed. Going 1 picture at a time, starting from the top and going in a straight line down.
You can add a boarder around each picture.
Double check your sizes to make sure they are the dimensions you wrote down earlier.
Get each photo as close are you can to the one above it. So they almost touch.
Print them off.
Step 8
Step 8-

Trim the sides of your photos but not the tops and bottoms.
Line up your trimmed photo strips, then using a long piece of clear packing tape, cover the front of the photos. Then flip them over and cover the back too.
Trim an excess tape.
Then make a fold after each photo, creasing it really well. Fold the first one to the front, then the next to the back, going along "accordion style".
Then use a little piece of tape to tape your top photo to the inside bottom of the tin.
Step 9
Step 9-

Now your Mini Photo Album is all finished!!
You can hang it on the wall from the camera strap. Or keep it in your purse to show off to all your friends.

Enjoy!