So, with the springness here, I was feeling the need for some pretty flowers in my house.  However, my vase situation is less than desirable, consisting mostly of those free glass ones that come with bouquets from Harris Teeter.  I was trying to think of something that I had laying around the house from which I could craft some bud vases and decided on good old Campbell’s soup cans.  I am a soup fiend so I basically have them coming out of my ears.  I have been totally obsessed with gold and white recently (which is funny because I used to hate gold) so I thought some gold and white stripes would do the trick.  These came out much better than I expected.  I super heart them.  They were so cheap (free other than paint) that I think this would also be a great craft project for a wedding.  Bud vases for centerpieces?  For free?  Done and done.

What you’ll need:

– Soup can or other canister of your choice.  I also used a coffee can along with my soup cans.

– Craft paint.  I used Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Paint in Wedding Cake and Gold.

– Paint brushes.  I used one big and two littles.

– Paint tape

– Sand paper

– Shellac Sealer (or other protective finish).  I used Bulls Eye Shellac Traditional Finish and Sealer.

What you’ll do:

1) Take the labels off of your cans.  There will likely be some glue on the side so use your sand paper to sand it off.  I really didn’t work too hard on this.  Paint them white (or other paint color of your choice).  This took several coats.  I started out using a small brush and then on coat three I finally got smart and used a big brush.  Much quicker.

2) Tape off the parts that you want to keep white.  Press down on the edges of your tape to make sure paint doesn’t get through.  

3) Paint the untaped places with gold (or other color).  Again, use a big brush if possible.  Takes much less time.  Once you’ve painted several coats, let dry.  Peel off the tape CAREFULLY.  I mean slow as molasses.  I had a major sadness occur when I was peeling off my tape and it took off half of the white paint underneath.  If some of the white paint came off, or gold paint got under the tape, use a small paint brush to do any necessary touch ups.   Let touch ups dry.  Then spray with the shellac for a protective finish.

Although this took more time than I originally thought it would (which is always the case with DIYs), it was super easy, ridiculously cheap, and probably one of my favorite home DIYs to date.  You know how I like it when I get to recycle things.  Makes me happy.  When I don’t have fresh flowers, I plan to use my little vases to hold other items or just to beautify my shelves.