Coffee Can Lanterns

November 29th, 2011

I’ve often admired lanterns like these and even saved up a load of tin cans this summer to give making them a go, but life kind of got in the way what with my roller coaster year of upheaval and the cans ended up in the recycling bin and the idea stashed away for a rainy day. Well today is that rainy day and I’m determined to give these a go at long last.

I want to share this lovely tutorial with you from Karen at Maggie Makes as I think it’s one of the best ones out there. I’ve seen lots of tutorials to make lanterns like these where you have to fill the cans with water and freeze them or fill them up with wet sand and freeze them – this is to stop the cans from distorting when you punch holes into them. I think this is what has always put me off as it’s so time consuming and requires freezer space – I’d rather just get down to the nitty gritty and get on with it.

Karen’s tutorial does just that and it’s perfectly illustrated over at Design*Sponge and here are the results:

You can even download the three designs pictured above to get you started which is great!

Go and get banging! I’ve just realised that all the cans in my recycling bin have been squashed, so I’m going to have to wait until I use some tinned food again before I can give this a go – damn! Soup for lunch anyone???

Posted in Tutorial Tuesday |