Recycling Soup Cans Part 2: Flower Pots

This is part 2 in the recycling soup cans series I am doing. If you'd like to see the first one- check it out here. 

This was inspired by a lesson I gave to my cub scouts. I taught them how to plant herb seeds for the requirement "grow something". We did it by doing the same technique I will be showing you how to do! 

Here is what you will need: 

Soup Cans (washed and goop cleaned off) 

Potting Soil

Flowers

Hammer

Nail

rock pebbles 

any embellishments you want to decorate them with

Here's my cans. I used goo be gone to get off the rest of the goop on the can. Two of my cans were tomato sauce cans so they were stained red inside. That wont matter though, because they will be covered. 

The first thing you want to do is take your nail and hammer in a few holes in the bottom of the can. This will allow extra water to drain out the bottom. 

I did 5 holes. 

I then went outside and found a bunch of rocks this size: (Get rocks smaller than pennies probably...I think mine were too big.) 

I bought this Miracle Gro Pitting Mix at Walmart. It was super cheap- I want to say 3 or 4 dollars??

I also bought my flowers at walmart. I liked the variety of color :) You will then put the pebbles in the bottom of the can. On top of that, put some potting mix in. Remove the flowers from the original plastic containers and place in the can. 

 I packed some more soil around the top to fill it up, then watered them. I just kept it simple with bakers twine tied on it. Look how simple! 

Just a few tips- keep them in sun, and don't over water! If you over water the soil will become so soggy with no way to dry out because of the small holes on the bottom. *Lesson learned...* 

I'm loving these cans! Are you saving yours yet?

p.s. check out my profile on pippit! pippit is like blogging, pinterest, and instagram smooshed into one app! The app should be available in the apple store and google store. follow me at handmadebygill and I will follow you back. 

Recycling Soup Cans Part 1: Pencil Holders

You guys. I.LOVE.SOUP.CANS. 

They seriously have become my favorite thing to reuse! There are so many fun things you can do with them so I decided to do a series of tutorials on how to use them. 

For this tutorial, you will need:

scrapbook paper

a paper cutter

recycled soup cans, washed, and paper removed (you can use goo be gone to get off all the sticky stuff)

hot glue gun

pen

The paper I chose is from American Crafts. They are having this huge warehouse sale not too far from my house, and I have to ban myself from going anymore. Anyway, I chose to make three pencil holders so I chose three coordinating papers. 

First you want to measure out where to cut the paper. 

Make a mark where the can hits, then take your paper cutter and cut. 

Now you will have the right width. Now you will use the hot glue gun. Put hot glue on one end of the paper and stick it on the can (easy enough right?!) Make sure you put it on straight not crooked because if its the least bit crooked it will roll up uneven on the can. 

After you have rolled it to the end, glue the end on. 

Of course my daughter had to be right by me. She colored while I crafted. I love how much she likes to color! 

This is how they look when then are done. SO simple, yet functional. Its a perfect way to display all the colors easily for my daughter. You can dress these up with a monogram on the front, some ribbons, twine, etc.. But I just kept it simple. Sometimes less is more, and because I love this paper I felt it was ok to leave them this way. 

And thats IT! Easiest tutorial ever, right?! 

Leave a comment below with a link to one of your recycled can projects. I'd love to see! 

Part two coming soon.. {recycled cans into plant holders}

linking up to these lovelies: http://handmadebygill.blogspot.com/p/link-parties.html