Remember my tutorial on how to make upcycled earrings from soda cans? The aluminum in those containers are thin and they are relatively easily to cut. So what about cookie and tea tins?  

You can indeed make recycled jewelry from those tins. However, the aluminum used is thicker.  Unless you have a heavy duty disc cutter, the best approach is to use metal snips. The other option is to use heavy duty disc cutters which are expensive - see the next tutorial below.

Watch this tutorial by Emerald City Treasures who specializes in repurposed crafts.  She demonstrates how she dismantles and cuts shapes out of a cookie tin. 

She uses two types of metal snips - one is heavy duty to cut up the tin. The smaller one is for the more detailed work. (I like this kind of tin shears for detailed work)  A simple homemade template works.  You can remove any marker pen marks with rubbing alcohol (from the drugstore). The alcohol will also clean the tin pieces.

I like how she use Jax Pewter Black to darken the back of the earrings. Nice touch!  She rinses off the blackening agent in her second bowl. You do need a sealant to keep that patina.



You can also get professional stencils from CoolTools (USA). They have many wonderful jewelry shapes such as the ever popular tear drops below. They are used by polymer clay, metal clay, and other crafters.


There is a quicker way to cut them but the die cutters which can handle the thicker metal are expensive. Worth the investment if you are going to make lots of this kind of jewelry. Watch this tutorial by Rachelee98 on how a heavy duty disc cutter is used to cut these heavier tins. 



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Disclosure 

 This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM