courage to create Xchange

Dawn wrote us:

Dear Michele,
I have cans and I was trying to make those necklaces with the can art. All I have is what's here already and that's some rivets or something from Walmart and the cans. I cannot get the cans to flaten like they do online. And I cannot get the idea of how to put foam on the back of them. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. I did get to make a couple of mosaics out of all that tile I have, and my husband is trying really hard to finish my bathroom. the tiling. Still have tons of tiles. I swear if you were closer to me I would give you some for your crafting and your show. I have three pallets.

Dawn

Michele writes back:

Hi Dawn! I sure hope selling some of your handiwork helps your situation. I'll do my best to get you the information you need. RE: the cans. To flatten them, I just remove the top and bottom with tin snips or even standard shears work well, once you have the cut started... (you'll want to make sure you cut it down far enough to remove the "curve"). This leaves you with the center panel of aluminum. As you cut it down into smaller sections, it should flatten out for you. You can also hammer it down. The hammer marks also give you a bit of texture in your piece. I'm not sure what you're trying to attach them to, but you can use rivets or I've worked with small sharp nails to hammer them onto wood. You can use your colorful pieces to create designs on a wooden board. Softer woods such as pine make it easy to hammer into. I've also used thin plywood as my backing. You can also create shapes out of your aluminum using hole/paper punches.

An idea for your plethora of tiles... how about making game boards to sell? They're very easy to make, you need minimal amount of supplies and they make wonderful gifts. I've included the link to the show that we did these for, so you could see some examples. Since you already have so many tiles, this may be an excellent thing for you to put together quickly and hopefully sell hundreds of!! You can also turn those tiles into trivets or coaster sets. Those three pallets of goodies may be just the thing you need to generate a nice stream of revenue for you and your family.

Click here for the tile game ideas:
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_natura ... 28,00.html

I sincerely wish you the best. Take care and let me know if I can be of further help with any questions you have!

Cheers to a creative day, Dawn!

Michele
michele@couragetocreate.com

Hi Dawn the women I know use a sizzix machine and adhesive-back foam (or a xyron) to make this type of jewelry.

Basically you cut off the tops & bottoms of the can as Luddy described.

Then you cut down the center of it and lay is out..

You use adhesive-backed foam to attach to the silver side (inside) of the can.
- You could also run the metal through your xyron (decoration side up) machine (if you don't know - thats a paper craft tool to do cold lamination, adhesive etc) and then add you foam to the back of the can

Use a sizzix (diecut) machine (it has to be the original heavy red machine - many are on clearance now at local &/or online craft stores)

-you could also trace a stencil & cut out shape

Use a hole punch & add a jumpring to either make pendants or earrings. Or skip the hole and glue to a magnet or pin backing.. Voila! Instant Pop Can Accessories!

I hope this makes it a bit clearer...

There's a woman named Yvonne who make fabulous items w/pop cans. here's a link to one of here old groups... You can still read older posts: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cancrafts/

http://groups.msn.com/RECY-CANRECI-LATAS/general.msnw

HTH - Hope this helps!