Recycled Tin Can Photo Pen Pots

These recycled tin can photo pen pots are a great way to upcycle the humble tin can.

Much like jam jars, in PaintSewGlueChew Towers -not many tin cans make their way to the recycling without first being repurposed into something else.

Abbi moved up to Secondary school in September, so we made these as little gifts for some of her friends (and the kids of some of mine).

Materials Required:

Tin Cans – Soup / Baked Bean Can sized with ring pull lid.
Photograph uploaded and printed on to A4 printer paper
Double sided tape
Sticky back plastic

The only tins cans suitable for these tin can pen pots, are the kind that have the pull lids – the “sharp rim” of the tin can is non serrated, and on the inside edge.

To make them safe for use, this sharp edge needs to be crimped down using pliers. It only takes a couple of minutes to smooth down the edge round the whole of the can.

Next you need to get your image. Measure the height and diameter of the tin can, upload your photo and crop the image to this size.

I used a funny picture that I made for the end of year graduation party, (but you could upload any picture). Print out on standard printer paper and cut to that size.
Place double sided tape around each of the edges of the trimmed image.
Put a layer of sticky back plastic over the trimmed image. I like to smooth out the air bubbles with a metal ruler. It also helps to “anchor” the edge of the sticky back plastic onto your work surface.
Wrap round the can, and repeat!
Just add pens. These tin can photo pen pots lend themselves really well to group photos – so would make a great teacher gift. If you don’t want to use a photo, draw out a picture in the same dimensions, and use that instead.