Introduction: Turn Drinks Cans Into Tetris Cookie Cutters

About: I'm an engineer and a dad who has a love for designing and making toys, STEM projects and anything electronicy.

Looking for geeky Christmas presents, I discovered you could buy Tetris piece shaped cookie cutters! However, looking at the price, I thought, why not make your own!

So, grab your old drinks can and a craft knife because it's time to get your geek on and get crafty!

Check out the video below for the step-by-step guide to accompany the Instructable.

Step 1: Gather Your Tools and Materials

For this project, you'll need:

Tools

  • Metal ruler
  • Craft knife
  • Scissors
  • Pliers (optional, but very helpful)
  • Self healing cutting board
  • Stapler

Materials

  • Printed Tetris piece template (download from this page)
  • 3 or so empty aluminium drinks cans

Let's get started!

Step 2: Cutting Up Your Cans

First up, place your can down on the craft mat and use your craft knife to punch a hole at either end of the middle of the can.

Next, use your scissors to cut around the can, keeping as straight a line as possible.

Be careful of the sharp metal edges and a pair of gloves can help protect your hands here.

After that, use the scissors to cut up the middle of the open cylinder to create one long rectangle of aluminium.

Finally,

Step 3: Rolling the Metal Flat

Next, being careful of the sharp edges, roll the can back on itself (against the natural curve).

This will help cancel out the curve of the can and make it easier to cut later.

You may need to roll it several times until it's fairly flat!

Step 4: Slice and Roll Your Strips of Aluminium

Next up, turn your piece of aluminium narrow side on and use your ruler and permanent marker to mark every inch or so. You should get about 3 inches marked out. Repeat this on the other end of the aluminium.

Now, use your marker and ruler to join the marks to mark the edges of your strips.

After that, use your metal ruler and craft knife to score along the marked lines to cut through.

You'll probably need to score through at least 3 times to cut through.

Repeat for all three pieces.

Finally, roll each piece back on themselves to flatten them out.

Step 5: Crimp the Sharp Edges

Now to remove those sharp edges!

Use your pliers to crimp (bend back) around 1-2mm of the metal on each sharp edge back on itself.

See photos for a better idea of this!

Repeat on both long edges of each piece of aluminium.

Step 6: Join Those Pieces!

For the larger cookie cutters, you'll need a longer piece of aluminium.

To do this, simply overlap two piece of aluminium (by around 1-2cm), making sure the edges line up straight!

Then, just add a couple of staples to hold the pieces in place.

Step 7: Bend the Metal to Your Cookie Cutter Shape

Next up, use your pliers and your printable Tetris piece template as a guide to bend the metal into the shape of each Tetris piece!

I find using the permanent marker to mark out corners beforehand helps with making accurate bends.

To join the cutter ends together, simply overlap the metal (around 1cm) and add two staples to hold in place.

For the longer Tetris shapes, use the extended pieces from the previous step.

Step 8: Time to Bake Some Tetris Cookies!

Congratulations, you're done!

Time to cut and bake some delicious geeky goodness!

Thanks very much for checking out my Instructable. I hope you found it interesting an/or helpful. If you try making these yourself, why not post photos of your finished cookies being enjoyed!