Upcycle Coffee Can Project

I have a big serious love of contact paper! You guys! This stuff is amazing! I have to stop myself when I get on a kick to buy contact paper because I want it ALL! I see different colors and prints and I think about all of the possibilities of projects I could work on.

You might remember that I made a DIY Blanket Box for under my daughter's crib a few months ago. That got me on a contact paper craft craze! Nothing was safe from my stash of contact paper! I created a few decorative containers that can be used for so many things!

I used mine to store markers in, as well as a really cute and simple way to organize kitchen things like wooden spoons and glass straws.

Materials needed to Upcycle a Coffee Can into a decorative storage container:
Contact Paper in your choice of prints.
Scissors
A clean coffee can or two
A utility knife

This project was so easy to do!

First, clean the interior of the coffee can to be sure there are not coffee grounds there!

Next make a measurement on how long and wide to cut your paper based on the size of the can. This is what I love about contact paper... it is so easy to measure, cut and work with!

Peel a small strip of the backing off of the contact paper and place it on your coffee can. Slowly, peel the paper back while smooting the adhesive paper to the surface.

As you cover the can, you are likely to have a little excess around the rims. No biggie, this is so easily remedied! You can use your utility knife to trim around the rims really easily! Just be careful, as those things are crazy sharp!

Everyone that sees my upcycled coffee can says "Where did you get them?" They are really cute, they used to match my kitchen perfectly before our move, and they have been surprisingly easy to keep clean {use a baby wipe}!

This upcycle project really didn't cost me anything to complete as I had materials on hand already, but I would say a thrifty shopper could find contact paper at Dollar Tree and make 4 of these {estimate} for $1.


Do you ever reuse a coffee can? I would love to hear how!

DIY Sorting Toy {Fine Motor Activity}

One of the things I love about being a mom is that somehow, my kids think I am magical when I come up with a fun way to play out of the blue. No matter how simple the activity, they are always interested and amazed. I know I complain sometimes about how hard parenting is, but you know, the tough moments are so worth it. Little kids are so fun and so sweetly simple in what it takes to get them interested in learning new skills and practicing their existing ones.

One of our favorite upcycled activities was completely simple to create and both of my kids played with it for hours! If you have toddlers or preschoolers in your home, this DIY Sorting Toy is a must make. It offers kids a simple fine motor activity as well as a chance to practice sorting, counting, differentiating between sizes and identifying  colors.

You will need:

a clean an empty egg carton

assorted pom poms {use different colors and sizes for additional sorting challenges}

Tongs or Tweezers for Children 

As you can see all I did was dump a handful of pom poms into a clean and dry egg carton. I laid a pair of rubber tongs for kids down and let Roo explore this option on his own. 

He sorted and sorted! He worked on his fine motor skills, his colors and sorting by size. 

This was an upcycle project that was super easy to put together and that my kids had a lot of fun learning and playing with!