I have a family of four and we seem to go through a lot of canned items. We have soup cans, pasta sauce cans, paint cans, bean and chickpea cans and many more cans that I just don't know what to do with. Yes, you can recycle them, but when I was washing them to recycle them one day, I realized they don't look half bad once the label is off and they are clean. They are the perfect size for many things around the house. I headed to my go-to place for DIY ideas and found some great uses for all of my empty cans on Pinterest.
1. DIY Keepsake Can
I love this idea that deliciously organized had for adding your family pictures to the soup cans and using them as a type of keepsake can. They look beautiful and you could do this with any size of can depending on the items you would like to add. You could even do it for your kids with a picture of their favourite cartoon character or super hero.
2. DIY Lanterns
You will see a step by step layout of how to make these awesome lanterns from any type of can you may have laying around at home on the blog Grow Creative. My sister used this idea and had these for her wedding to light the gardens and pathways at night. It was beautiful. Afterward, she used them outside at her house and gave a bunch of them away as well. They were free and pretty decorations for her wedding.
3. DIY Flower Vases
This is such a simple and easy craft to do to upcycle your cans. Take any can, and take either ribbon or rope and just hot glue it wrapped around. You can add a plastic insert or bag if you want to use real flowers and don't want the can to rust inside from the water. This idea from ordinary things made extraordinary can be used in any home. I think they look very pretty and you can change up the idea according to your personal taste.
4. DIY Bird Feeder
I can't wait to do this craft from plum adorable with my kids next week. All it requires is some paint, ribbon and a wooden stick. Just have your kids paint a soup can, glue gun some ribbon around it and add a stick on the inside for the birds to stand on. You can hang them from your fence in the back yard or a tree and put some seeds in it. This is such a pretty and easy craft to do with kids for the back yard.
5. DIY Cookie Cutters or Cake Pans
This DIY idea from Thekitchenpaper.com is a little harder than the others mentioned but still fairly easy. They give you a step by step plan on how to take any can and turn it into a cookie cutter or baking pan template. This would be great to use for birthday parties!
6. DIY Makeup Containers
I found this idea on Pinterest that someone must have posted themselves, because there is no link to a website. It looks very simple to do though. Much like the keepsake can, you can decorate any can how you would like and use it to hold your makeup brushes and supplies. I like this idea because it will keep the quality of the brush intact, instead of laying them down.
Do you have some other great uses for cans around your house? Which ones do you want to try out?
(banner photo credit to Darlus Norvllas)
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