Lillian lost her first tooth! For her inaugural visit, the Tooth Fairy will be bringing this adorable Lost Tooth Box I made from a mint tin. I can’t wait for Lilly’s reaction in the morning!
Perhaps more than most little kids, Lillian has been absolutely aching to loose a tooth. She is one of the youngest in her kindergarten class and the very last one to still have all of her baby teeth. She has watched so many of her friends loose teeth and has been waiting patiently for it to be her turn. Finally, last week, one of her bottom teeth became extremely wiggly. She’s been wiggling away for days. And today was the day!
Unfortunately and much to her dismay, the little “tooth necklace” that the school nurse gave her to keep the tooth safe popped open during recess and the tooth disappeared into the playground mulch. She was quite devastated until I assured her the Tooth Fairy would understand and would gladly accept a note.
So she penned this rather clever explanation:
“Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth. Then I lost my tooth. From Lilly”
In full disclosure, I can take very little credit for this whole tooth box idea. I am not a craft blogger. I am relatively crafty, but food is where I devote most of my energy. Lucky for me, my insanely talented friend Cassie, founder of the wildly popular website Little Red Window, shared her own DIY Lost Tooth Box last fall and I immediately fell in love with the idea.
Cassie’s Tooth Box is ridiculously cute. She used a dental floss container, plastic vinyl and a cutting machine to create her intricate and adorable design. Its absolutely lovely but I wasn’t sure I would be able to pull it off as-is (I don’t have a vinyl cutter and don’t trust myself to freehand the design). But her version got the wheels in my brain turning. Soon after, I happened to notice some mint tins in the checkout line at Trader Joe’s and had a lightbulb moment.
For my Lost Tooth Box, I ended up spraying my tin with a coat of white spray paint primer (I made two boxes, so that I’d have one ready for Maxwell when he loses his teeth some day).
Next, I found a simple tooth image in clip art via google, sized it to fit on the side of my mint tin and printed it out. I cut out the paper tooth and used it to trace the tooth shape on to a piece of blue painter’s tape, which I stuck on the front of my now-white mint tin.
Then I sprayed the tins with gold metallic paint and let them dry completely before peeling off the tooth sticker.
Finally, I used a chalk paint pen to add white lines around the tooth, just to add some interest and I lined the inside of each tin with felt to give the tooth a nice soft spot to rest.
To complete the surprise, I printed out a copy of Cassie’s Free Printable First Tooth Letter to tuck under the pillow with the tooth box.
This was such a fun project to work on and, really, quite easy to create. And Cassie’s letter completes it perfectly. I am so excited to share this special gift with Lillian. I know she’s going to feel so important to be part of the “Official Tooth Fairy Smile Club.”
Thanks, Cassie, for the wonderful inspiration!
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