Personalized Repurposed Tin Can

I shared this project over at Kathe with an E a couple of weeks ago. Now that I’ve given the tin to my friend, J., as a gift, I want to share it with you.

Organized 31 - Personalized Repurposed Tin in 20 Minutes for Free

I love to repurpose items for organizing and storage. Maybe it’s because of all the moving, but I hate to spend good money on an item that won’t work in my next house. When I find a way to repurpose an item, I’m saving money, saving the landfill and having fun being creative.

I’m blessed to have wonderful friends. Wonderful friends who have started sorting through their trash just to pass it along to me. Seriously, I love that my friends are now looking at their recycling for items that I can repurpose (I love it, but it still amuses me). I met my friend, J., for lunch a while ago and she passed this tin on to me.

I remembered J. telling me that when she was young, because her name is unusual, she could never find personalized items in the store. Bing. I knew just had to personalize this tin for her. But you could easily add any name or label you wanted.

I hopped onto PicMonkey and quickly created the personalized image I wanted. I love PicMonkey, it’s an online photo editor that’s super easy to use (really). You can also try Pixlr’s free version. I printed the image out on cream card stock to coordinate with the colors that would show on the edge of the lid and grabbed my supplies.

(You may notice where my child tried to help me and sliced the top of my image. Shrug. It adds character and a story. And it seems wasteful to use up more paper and printer ink printing out another image to use in a repurposing project!)

This type of can is my favorite for repurposing because it has this lip where the lid meets the can.

That lip makes it super easy to know just where to line up the paper when you decoupage it onto the can.

I carefully added Mod Podge to just the back of the paper (to keep the matte look of the paper), lined the paper up with the lip of the can and wrapped rubber bands around the can to hold the paper in place while it dried. Using rubber bands is a great trick to make sure that the paper adheres well to the curved surface of the can.

To finish the lid off I added some ribbon I inherited from my mom when she was cleaning out her sewing supplies (I knew it would come in handy some day). And finally I added paper to the top so J. can label the contents if she wants.

The entire project took about 20 minutes plus drying time. Since I used a repurposed can and craft supplies I already had, it cost nothing but some pleasant time spent crafting a surprise for a friend.

I don’t know about you, but while I love looking at those elaborate projects that take other people days to do (and would take me weeks), I prefer the quick and easy projects I can squeeze into my day between all my other responsibilities. I guess I have a short attention span (or a busy life).

I can’t wait to return this little treasure to J. the next time we have lunch together.

You might like to see some of my other repurposed projects from trash my friends have given me.

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Susan

I’m a mom of 3, a veteran and military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them.

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