Recycled Can Crafts – Make a Garden Butterfly

Soda pop can butterfly - DIY gardening project

Recycled can crafts – butterfly :: Still snowing and not much delight in your garden just yet? Make Spring come early with some recycled can crafts and make your own jewel butterfly! So delightful.

1,2,3 Step-by-step Tutorial on How to Make these Fun Recycled Can Butterfly

STEP 1.

Cut the top and the bottom of your can with a pair or scissors that’s appropriate for cutting metals. I.e. don’t use your best sewing scissors for this project.

If you are doing this project with kids as a cool kids crafts for Spring Break: BE WARNED: the metal can really be sharp and it would be irresponsible to have kids cut this. This is really YOUR prep, to be done carefully. Once you cut the shape you can use some sandpaper to dull the edges. Personally, having done this a couple of times now, I realize that how you cut and what you cut it with has an impact. As well, I think that certain types of metal cans have different levels of sharpness. For example, This butterfly, made from a recycled Fanta can, turned out to be not so sharp. I cut it with a pair of kids scissors.

STEP 2.

So, being careful, flatten the sheet of aluminum. With washable kids markers, let the kids design a butterfly on it. Make sure there are some detailed lines on the design so that you can hammer these later….

Depending on their age and ability, either you or they can cut the butterfly shape. The butterfly head with its antennas is the tricky part and requires a bit of patience and dexterity.

STEP 3.

With a Phillips head screwdriver and a small hammer, hammer tiny dots in a pattern onto your butterfly, following the marker design. When done, rinse off the marker marks in the sink.

STEP 4.

The butterfly can already be used as is.

But to make it really stand out and be used in garden crafts & decorations, I’ve added 5 beads to wrap around the ‘neck’ of the butterfly. I punched 2 tiny holes in the middle of the butterfly on either side of the body, and poked the zinc wire (contrast colored metal) through the holes, to wrap it crisscross over the front of the body, and to tie it to a wooden stick at the back.

Here’s an illustration of how I wrapped the wire.

And voila, there is your recycled can crafts butterfly!

Now you can add your stick wherever you wish in the garden.Shiny metal is helpful in keeping unwanted critters and birds from nibbling on your strawberries or other fruit. So, if you feel like making a hundred aluminum butterflies, you can hang them in your fruit trees or make a butterfly bush!

If you want to make one or two butterflies, you will find they look great in a vase with flowers or to accompany your balcony plants.

Further Aluminum Can Crafts

And of course, don’t stop at making butterflies. There are dragonflies and flowers to make too! I’ll show you how to make those on another morning. Ah, all the cool crafts for kids we can make… Have a happy day this Spring break! And who says you have to use recycled cans? You can make a great butterfly, or even butterflies, with aluminum pie pan bottoms. They say … the sky is the limit…