Outdoor Lighting With Tuna Cans??



It has been awhile since I have blogged. Of course, I have never stopped crafting, just had tons of family work that needed to be done.

I hope all of you are having a super summer so far! It is hot here in Arizona already and since we spend a great deal of time outside, especially at night, by the pool I wanted to make something "fancy" to look at. Not to mention that our pool light isn't working anymore, so we needed a little more than the moon light we seldom get.

Somewhere on the web I found a creative project with a tuna can made into a light. I just had to try it.  I believe she used hurricane glass and simply painted her tuna can and they looked wonderful, but I am always about the fancy stuff, so I just had adorn mine with all kinds of shiny stuff to glam it up.

Here is my supply list:

I made 3 of these all the same so they would line up nicely along my pool fence line.

• 3 Tuna Cans
• 3 Wood Screws
• 3 Wooden Dowels
• 3 Globes
• Drill with appropriate Drill Bit
• Awl (to help tap the hole in the can prior to screwing)
• Copper Colored Spray Paint
• Glass Tiles
• Misc String Beads
• Aleene's Craft Glue
• Patience

Start out by cleaning any labels and excess glue off of your tuna cans. Since I was covering mine instead of just painting them I wasn't too worried about a few spots here and there. However, if you are going to prime and paint them without adhering any "bling" make sure they are nice and smooth.

Use the awl to poke a hole in the center of each tuna can. Since this is the bottom of the can no one should be able to see any scratches or imperfections.

If you would like to paint your cans do that now, also paint your wooden dowels. (I didn't do this first but I believe it would have been much easier.)

Once dry, screw your can to your dowel. Be careful here that you are using a screw that will not split your wood. I did apply a dab of E600 glue to the bottom of each can prior to drilling just to give it a bit more stability.

Make sure your screw is flush with the can.

Now start decorating it. When I went to Home Depot to buy my dowels, I stumbled across this sheet of clearance glass tile and fell in love with it. Oh the possibilities!!! I will use this over and over again. I measured around the can and cut a strip of tiles to fit. Since I had some gaps I found some scrap pearl like beads that I had on a string and added those in between. I suppose you could even go so far as to grout these, but it would make your cans quite a bit heavier.

I also found these great amber colored light globes from a discarded ceiling fan at my local Deseret Industries Thrift store and just knew they would work perfectly in the tuna cans and the colored tile.

I had to use clothespins to get the strips of tile to stay in place while they were drying. The tacky glue worked great. It was dry by morning and we started this project late in the evening.

Actually, it looks okay even without the globe. Just pop in a tea light and let it shine. I like the globe on mine though just for the extra fancy factor, plus it helps the candle light shine a bit more.

I suppose you could make something similar to this for indoors as well. Who knows that may be my next project. Let me know what you think, or if you have made something similar post a link to your project below.

Thanks for stopping by.

Clock Making 101–using recycled items, of course!!

Save those bottle caps, you never know when they might come in handy. My husband brought home about 20  thick cardboard 12 x 12 squares from a recent tile job he completed. (Note the tile frame on the Starbucks clock.) He also had some leftover tile. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first. I have wanted to make a clock for my sister-in-law aka Starbucks addict, for quite some time. I saved about 30 of the Starbucks caps for the past year and finally found a use for them.




After I made the Starbucks clock, I realized I could do the same with the other bottle caps I had been saving. I made a bunch of little snowman and gingerbread man magnets for a craft show I was doing and just took off the magnets and added them to the clock.

The great part was it didn’t cost much at all. Instead of buying the clock parts from Michaels, which would have cost about 5 bucks even with my coupon, I found a bunch of clocks at Wal-Mart on clearance for 2 bucks. I took them apart poked a hole through the cardboard and used the overlay from the Wal-Mart clocks to arrange the caps accordingly. I did have to trim down the hands a couple of mm in order to keep them from hitting the caps.

I placed a felt cover with a flap over the timepiece in the back to change the batteries.
I also made one for my Dad for Christmas. He is a computer lover and so I took some keys off of an old keyboard and used some old CD’s to construct the clock. He loved it…maybe cause he’s my Daddy, but that’s okay.

I think these will make great gifts for some of my other friends and family too. They are super easy to make and very unique.


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