A Repurposed Bean Can Into a Lemony Vase

5 Materials
$8
30 Minutes
Easy

Ever have a giant can of beans and thought to yourself - that could be a vase? Well I did! LOL! Some friends and I were challenged to make something lemony and perfect for summer. I came up with turning a can of Bush's Baked Beans into a beautiful lemony flower arrangement with the can as the vase!

The first and obvious thing to do is invite 20 people over to eat a 7 pound can of beans. Wow, that is a lot of beans. When we calculated the entire can, it came out to like 4200 calories!

Next is to remove the label and wash it really well. I used Rust-oleum's Chalked Paint in Linen White to paint the entire can. But if silver is more your thing, it's perfectly fine to leave it alone.

I wanted to make a cute handle for it so after the paint was dry, the Mister drilled two holes in each side of the can. The handle is purely decorative. It will probably hold if filled with water but I wasn't going to check.

Next step is to use Mod Podge to glue on scrap book paper. You can do one side of the can or both. I chose to do one side at a time. Use the glue on the can and on the paper. And don't be stingy with the glue. It's better to have too much than not enough.

While the paper and glue were drying, we started on the handle. We used twine and braided 6 strands together to make the handle more substantial. Once you get the length you want, start braiding them together. When you are finished, tie the ends in a knot and cut all of the strands except the one in the middle. Pull the longest strand through the holes in the side of the can. Tie a knot and there's your cute handle.

If you notice, the edges of the can are now black. I didn't like the white paint and decided to go back and paint black the portion of the can that was white. I think the lemony paper stands out better.


You can insert a glass jar inside to hold flowers if you want to use less water but you don't have too. The can is waterproof. If you'd like to see more of this project check out the blog post.

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Cindy Richter
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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