Tin Can Roses

I wanted to do something special for my wife for our recent anniversary. Since her birthday was only 8 days previous and I went all out I was on a budget. I was not about to let an anniversary slip by without a memorable tribute so I got to work.

I have a relatively unsophisticated collection of hand tools, no power tools to speak of and I'm not exactly overwhelmed with raw material choices around the house. After mulling over a bunch of ideas in my head over the course of a couple of days I decided on making her a dozen roses. I created them using pretty simple household stuff.

Materials Needed:
(6) Soda Cans
(12) 11" pieces of constuction or strong craft wire (for stems)

Tools Needed:
Scissors (Don't use your wife's sewing scissors because they will be dull and worthless after cutting through tin cans.)
Ballpoint Pen (Use a pen you don't care about because it will probably not write after this little adventure.)
Sanding Sponge or Sand Paper
Needle Nose Pliers (These will be used to cut and bend wire)

Please Note: Be careful not to cut yourself on the sharp edges of the soda can.

Step 1: Rinse and Prepare Soda Cans

Thoroughly rinse the cans with hot water to keep them from getting sticky and gumming up your scissors. Once they're clean and dry cut off the tops and bottoms of the cans so only the sides remain. You can use a metal ruler to straighten out the material once you've cut the edges straight.

Comments

[safenj]

How do you attach the leaves?

[Penolopy Bulnick]

That is really sweet! She must have loved them, and she can enjoy them forever :)

[ironsmiter]

Start with coke cans, but do not remove the paint.
For the leaves, use sprite cans

:-)


VERY nice looking rosebuds.

Anyone with thoughts on a good pattern for adding petals, and turning it into an "adult" rose?

[erich.haubrich]

I Started with Mountain Dew and ended up with a little bit of the paint on the leaves. It added kind of a nice effect. I think in v2.0 I'm going to use regular food cans and hand paint the petals. You can also add a nice texture to the leaves with the ballpoint pen and make more intricate cuts to shape the petals.