Real Projects
Every gift tin case in the library — 106 production runs in total, 24 to a page, each one carrying the mould it was made from. Gift builds are mostly square and round bodies sized to hold a set rather than a single item, so the shape column is the place to start.
Built for the Shelf, Then the Desk
As gift tin manufacturers, we treat a festive build as a dated project rather than a reprint. The finish, the interior and the pack are all decided against the day the tin has to be on a shelf.
A gift tin box is bought for how it looks on a shelf, and almost all of that is finish rather than shape. Foil, embossing, debossing, matte and spot UV all run on the existing gift tin moulds, so the expensive-looking version carries no extra tooling cost.
What the recipient sees first is the inside of a gift tin. A velvet or EVA pad, an insert card, or a PET tray cut to the contents all go in before the lid is closed — and each is quoted per piece rather than added on later.
A cookie gift tin or a tin of nuts needs an internal lacquer instead of bare tinplate. That has to be specified at the same time as the print, because it changes which inks can go on the inside surfaces.
The lid is what gets tested on the day. A gift tin with lid that seats under compression still fits after a year of opening, and a sleeve, ribbon or shrink band keeps the whole thing intact through transit.
Built to Be Kept
A gift tin is judged twice — once on the shelf and again a year later on a desk. Three things decide whether it survives both, and on every case above all three were fixed before printing started.
Applications
A gift tin is bought in four recognisable patterns, and each one is a different procurement job rather than a different artwork. What changes between them is the closure, the interior and the pack. A round gift tin, a square gift tin and a long slim gift tin all appear above, and each one carries a different tray and closure.
Company-end-of-year and client gift programmes, where a corporate gift tin carries embossing or debossing and a finish that reads as expensive without a large unit cost.
Christmas, Lunar New Year and mid-autumn builds — usually a square or round body with a full-wrap print, a sleeve and an insert tray sized to the set.
Multi-piece gift tin set builds where two or three tins nest into an outer carton, each holding a different item but carrying one continuous artwork.
Launch kits, press packs and event giveaways — short runs where a stock mould keeps the unit price sensible and the lead time inside a campaign window.
Mould Register
Every size below comes from a live mould record rather than a typical figure. Any of them can be sampled before you commit to a bespoke die.
| Mould Ref. | Shape | Capacity | Cases | View case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TIN_WZHJ_00010 | Square Tin | — | 1 | View case |
| TIN_WZHJ_00006 | Square Tin | — | 1 | View case |
| TIN-DGSL-00023 | Heart Tin | 255.3ml | 12 | View case |
| TIN-DGXY-00031 | Square Tin | 675ml | 12 | View case |
| TIN_DWGY_00162 | Tin | 2000ml | 8 | View case |
| TIN_SZYCT_00003 | Tin | 19.82ml | 3 | View case |
| TIN_DWGY_00207 | Tin | 52.25ml | 10 | View case |
| TIN_DWGY_00100 | Square Tin | 445.5ml | 11 | View case |
Material: food-grade tinplate, internal lacquer where the fill needs one. gift tin MOQ 1,000 pcs per design, pre-production sample 7 days, new mould tooling adds 20–25 days. FOB Ningbo / Shanghai / Shenzhen.
Design Reference
Two artwork decisions carry most of the value: how the print reads on a shelf, and how it survives being kept.
A gift tin is chosen from a shelf or a photograph, so the artwork has to carry the value on its own. Full-wrap CMYK offset litho in up to 8 colours goes straight onto the tinplate, and every festive tin packaging proof is run on the real substrate rather than on paper.
Matt varnish, spot UV, embossing and debossing sit on top of the print rather than replacing it, so one custom gift tins order can look like three different products from a single mould. A heavier gauge and a curled edge add the weight in the hand that buyers read as quality.
Buying Guide
Four decisions turn one of the cases on this page into an order that lands before the date it is needed.
Christmas, Lunar New Year and mid-autumn builds land on fixed dates and cannot slip. festive tin packaging is scheduled backwards from the shelf date, which is why the shape is picked from what is already tooled rather than drawn from scratch.
If the tin is the present, the finish and the closure carry the value. If it holds the present, the capacity and the interior do. Which one it is changes the whole spec, and it is the first thing we ask.
A custom gift tins programme is bought once or twice a year at a known volume, so the useful question is what the finish costs at that volume rather than what the cheapest unit costs. Most of this range sits in the same band either way.
A gift set is a packing job as much as a printing job. Insert tray, divider, sleeve, ribbon, shrink band and outer carton all have to be on the same line, and booking that slot when the tin goes into production is what keeps a gift tin set from slipping past its date.
Related Ranges
Gift Tins share a production line with the rest of the tinplate range. The categories below all have live case galleries, so the same construction and the same mould register carry across.
FAQs
The questions that come up most often when buyers spec a gift tin.
Send your artwork or just a rough sketch and we will come back with shape options, an indicative price and a lead time — usually within one working day. WhatsApp and email both work.
