If you can't beat 'em, upcycle 'em.

Mr. Greenhab (aka Cheapest Man on the Planet) cannot pass up a good deal when he sees one (because he rarely thinks anything is a good deal). So when he found hot cocoa on sale for a dollar-something today he came home with two big cans.

We have something of a hot cocoa addiction in the Greenhab household, so I immediately dumped both cans into the official hot cocoa canister then stood looking at the empty, unrecycleable, foil-lined cardboard cans. This is exactly the type of packaging we are trying to avoid these days. We choose glass first since it can be recycled easily and back on the shelf quickly. And, if our only choices are plastic v. something that can't be recycled, we will take plastic so that we're at least not adding to the landfill (not that plastic is a wonderful alternative).

So there I stood staring at these cans that couldn't be recycled debating throwing them away (and feeling really guilty about it) v. keeping them for some use down the road. That's when it came to me. With Valentine's Day coming up, I've had gifty-type projects on my mind lately. And this adorable scrap booking paper has been sitting in my stash for some time now just waiting for the right project.

With the boys napping, I made a mad dash to the craft room for supplies: paper, paper cutter, mod podge, ribbon, and a hot glue gun. (I keep turning this pic around, but it keeps uploading like this...)

Take your cans - you can use any size - and remove the paper. I started with these two, then added a 3rd, smaller can at the last minute.

Measure how long and tall your paper needs to be, then cut it.

On the first try, I put mod podge directly on the can, then pressed the paper onto it. On the 2nd one, I applied the mod podge to the back of the paper and then put applied the paper to the can. Either way seemed to work just fine. Once you have the paper on, you will need to smooth out any air bubbles.

I thought they looked sweet just like this, but decided to add some ribbon for a more finished look.

Use a hot glue gun to affix the ribbon to top and/or bottom of the cans. I chose colors that complimented the paper.



Aren't they sweet? These will go in our art area for the kids' crayons, markers, paint brushes, etc. but I thought they would also be a nice gift to go on a teacher's desk.

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This post is my contribution to tomorrow's MIFS blog carnival. It is the 100th edition of the Make it From Scratch carnival and will be hosted on the MIFS blog. Be sure to check back here on Tuesday, February 2nd when I'll be hosting the MIFS carnival right here at Greenhab. Check here for directions on entering a submission (I hope you will!).