The need to create is real. Crafters create because it is so good for their souls. But crafting costs, especially metal. So check out Cindy Fortin's UpcycleDesignLab channel. She has many ideas on how to craft on a budget.
This hack for how to make faux copper sheets from recycled tin cans is a good one. Cindy also demonstrates how to add texture and give the sheets the look of verdigris - oxidized copper.
Her method of flattening aluminum soda cans is much better than what I discovered in a previous hack (see first link below). Cindy uses an iron to heat and flatten the can but her tip of using a cookie sheet underneath is clever. The can sheet gets heated on both sides!
If you want to recycled thicker cans like those used for food, then you have to switch to her fire pit method! The heat anneals the metal enough so it can be flattened by hand. No corrugation on the can? You can use a humble tube wringer to get that texture.
She also has a great video on how to make simple layered earrings.
H/T Aims of Big Blue Barn Designs
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
oh dear, I foresee a (large) pile of cans waiting to be flattened!
ReplyDeletewe crafters are creative and frugal. and often, packrats!!
I've followed Cindy for quite a while now and have used a number of her ideas in my own work. She's got endless ideas for anyone who has hit a crafting idea block! Her amazing different uses for cans are brilliant. Not only are they like free metal for anyone who uses metal in their designs - but it also keeps the cans from being buried in the earth. If your community recycles you know that these metals are being used somewhere else so why not use them yourself? I have bins of annealed and flattened cans - right down to ones I've taken the printing off of. You just never know when you can use a bit of metal for creating a mixed media project!
ReplyDeleteSo many great ideas for crafting with tin cans!
ReplyDelete