Ribbon Storage out of a Recycled Food Canister

I saw this idea for ribbon spool storage in my latest issue of ReadyMade, using an old cookie tin. I thought I'd try making one out of a baby snack canister that my little guy just polished off today.

1. Take an empty food canister and cut two parallel slits into it. I am using a baby snack canister which is cardboard, so it was easy to cut through with a knife:


2. Cut tiny connecting slits on top and bottom to completely remove your ribbon slit:


3. Cut a piece of decorative paper for the outside:

I am using a left-over scrap of gift wrap to cover this one. You could use any kind of paper you have around, including junk mail, of course!

4. Using the adhesive of your choice, glue the paper around the outside of the canister:


5. Cut the slit out of the paper:

(TIP: hold the canister up to the light and you'll see the slit shine through on the other side, giving you a guideline to cut.)

6. Drop in your spools, fishing the loose ends of ribbon through the slot:


And you're done! A stylish way to store your ribbon spools!

Check out my past posts for ideas to turn your food canisters into a battery recycling container or snack storage!

DIY - Make snack storage cans out of old formula cans

Since having to switch to formula lately, I've been wondering what to do with the cans once it's all used up. Here's my first project, which has used up a couple, turning them into snack canisters!

First, take off the labels. Mine came right off:

Next, cut some paper to cover the cans. I wrapped mine in construction paper first, although you could just leave them as-is and glue on the snack name or picture if you like the metallic finish. I just cut the Cheerios box down to just the name:



Then, glue to your canister, and voila! A snack storage can! Here's a tip if you are glueing something like the Cheerios box cut-out...curl the cardboard a little so it takes the shape of the can more easily before adding glue, and put a couple rubber bands around it to hold it down while the glue dries.


For the Goldfish Cracker can, I just did a Google Image Search for "goldfish cracker," found an image, and printed it out. You could use the packaging too, or just make your own label.

One very simple way to use your empty formula cans to store other baby stuff! I like these because it's better than having to roll and unroll a bag of snacks...the lid makes it easier to keep them fresh and access them quicker. Plus, they are more customized than just using a Tupperware. I also stored my bottle nipples, rings, and caps (before I switched to Adiri) in a paper-covered Crisco can.

So, I only have so many baby snacks around...what else to do with future empty cans? There are many other ideas out there on the web...

How about a cool gift box?

Or a pencil holder?

These are great ideas and you can cover the cans with all kinds of other recycled materials...old maps, gift wrap, photos, or even junk mail of course!

There are some more ideas here, and here! Get creative...there are so many more "things" we buy that we could actually make, quite easily, out of recycled materials that we already have around!

Hmm...now I just need to come up with some creative ideas for recycling the little plastic scoops that come in the formula...