I saw these cans in a restaurant once. They used small soda cans for cutlery that was covered with rolled up book pages and I thought they were beautiful and that it would make a great DIY gift. I made mine a little bigger and used it for a Teacher’s Survival Kit. Its not really cheap to make this, my total cost was R190 but it can be free depending on what you put in the can as the can didn’t cost me a cent.
You will need:
- Any type of tin can (I used a medium size formula can)
- An old unwanted book (I used an outdated Sociology textbook- A 100pg book was needed for one can as a few pages had pen scribbles that I didn’t want in)
- Lots of paperclips
- A long pencil to roll the pages with
- Craft glue (I used Prit to glue the paper rolls and Cold glue to stick it to the can)
- Thin cardboard to fix paper rolls to can (I used 160mg A3 for my size can)
- String or thread or anything to tie around the can to hold the paper rolls in place while glue is drying
- Ribbon or washi tape and/or other decorations (optional)
How:
– Measure and cut the cardboard to the exact size of the can. Make sure to leave open a2cm (1inch) piece to overlap to get the glue down… That piece will reduce to 1cm as the paperclips will make the cardboard shorter in the end. You will use this to lign up your paper rolls to see how much you will need. (I used 42)
-Tear pages out of the book (eeeeek I know its hard) and measure how much you have to cut of. I cut quite a few pages at once and cut off all the white parts so that theres not too much white parts that may be visually disturbing. I used a guideline (mine was the second line from the bottom for instance) so I didn’t have to measure every time I had to cut new pages and it also makes the words align which makes it look neat. I left one white side as thats the part where I’d start rolling it up so you wont see it.
– Put the page horizontal so you can roll it up to the top. Glue the top strip- make sure you get all the sides otherwise the paper roll can tear loose.
– Place the pencil horizontally on the bottom end and roll it up tightly. Make sure the glue is fixed on the top end and fix a paperclip to each loose end of the page to keep the ends down.
– Once you finished rolling all the pages, glue a small area of the cardboard (I glued the whole page and found the glue will dry out if you glue the whole piece as it takes a while) and fix the top and bottom ends of the paperclips to the cardboard.
– When all the paper rolls are fixed, glue the whole can properly with craft glue and tie string around the can to hold it in place while the glue dries.
– Once the glue is dry, tie ribbon or washi tape and all final decorations to finish can.
Easy as that!
