We have so many soup and coffee cans to recycle so I thought I would explore different ways of reusing them.

• Bake bread. Soup cans make cute little round slices of bread. Try banana bread, zuchinni bread, raisin bran or carrot cake muffin/cake recipes.

• Use them as a candle mold. Either insert a tabbed wick and fill with wax or punch a wick hole through the bottom and use putty to secure before pouring wax into it. Wait to set and remove for a perfect pretty pillar candle.

• Soup cans are the perfect size for a pencil holder. Decoupage a family photo, flowers or some funky animal prints onto it for décor.

• Make a tin candle lantern by punching holes into the can with a nail and a hammer. Add a tea light and a wire hanger. Try fun easy shapes like hearts, stars, diamonds or circles. You could also use a pattern to trace. See detailed instructions by Rachel Paxton: How to Make a Tin Can Luminary.

• Make a “buddy burner” or a little emergency heat source or stove. Find detailed instructions at Justpeace.org (The Buddy Burner). This would be handy in an emergency, if you were stuck out in the cold or for cooking and camping.

• Flatten out a can and paint something onto it. Check out Patti’s Flattened Can Flag project.

• Some people have made houses and furniture out of tin cans but that would take a lot of them. See these houses and tin can products for examples and ideas.

Tags: Crafts, Recycling //