Nothing says Love like a letter

I am playing around with ideas for making charms, since I have to create 19 completed charms for a Valentine swap later in the week.
One idea was to make little tiny envelopes (love letters) out of soda cans.


I ended up not using this idea, but I think it's fun to play around with trying new things.
I'm presenting this in its raw form--meaning it's scratched and imperfect because I was just trying out the form.
Ignore the lines that aren't perfectly straight, as I have yet to iron out the details.
I may indeed, however, go further with this in the future.

I started with an aluminum can of Japanese strawberry soda.
I made a paper template first, then etched it onto the can, and cut out the template with cheap craft scissors.
I scored the fold lines, folded, then flattened with a bone tool.
If you try this, watch how hard you score and fold, or the metal pieces may break at the line rather than fold.
On the edges that showed, I folded under as I would have done with fabric, so there were no raw edges.

For this first attempt, I simply scratched "Love" onto the front side, as this is only a prototype, but for actual charms I would use metal letter stamps to indent the word into the aluminum.
If it's going to be used as a charm, make sure to punch a hole for an eilet and a jump ring at the upper left corner, or solder on a loop of some kind.

The finished envelope is one-and-a-half inches by one inch.

It could be sealed with glue or soldered.
It would be cute to add a drop of red wax and to press it like sealing wax.

An alternative would be to make the envelopes out of pink linen stiffened with fusible interfacing and embroidered.