Tag: secretbox

Re-Purpose With Duck Tape

Here we go again with another re-purposing idea! Today we’re turning an empty Ovaltine container into a fun place to store something awesome. Never heard of Ovaltine? It’s an awesome chocolate powder that turns ordinary milk into yummy yummy chocolate milk! Mmmm! 🙂 It’s sad when the Ovaltine container is empty, so here’s a way to cheer you up even when the chocolate is gone. 😉

The Ovaltine container is made partially of cardboard so be careful cleaning it. You can wash the inside of the container but avoid getting the outside wet. Dry it quickly and completely and you’re ready to start decorating. There are many colors and prints available in Duck Tape, so find one you like.

I found this neat variegated blue with tiny stars.

Remove the lid of the container and set it aside for later. Wrap the first piece of duck tape around the top on the container, being careful to keep it as straight as possible. Following along the top edge will help.

For the next piece of tape, I chose to go along the bottom edge in the same way I did the top edge.

Add one more strip of duck tape around the middle of the container, overlapping on both the top and bottom strips of tape.

The can part is done! Now let’s make the lid look great too. If you have a compass, you can place the point of the compass in the center of the lid and extend the pencil to meet the inside edge of the lid.

Keeping the compass in this position, you can draw a circle that will fit the lid. A great place to find a cool picture for your lid is by using old magazine pages.

Draw the circle using the compass and cut the picture out with scissors. Using glue or double-sided tape, attach your picture to the lid. Here are a few pictures I found that I liked. Flowers…

More flowers…

A hummingbird with flowers…

Maybe you like animals better than flowers? How about this adorable kitten?

Or this beautiful foal?

There are so many things you could use to decorate the lid! You could color your own picture or use a circle of colored paper and decorate using stickers. Let your mind think up something fun to use from things you have around the house. If you don’t have an Ovaltine container, look around for something similar…duck tape works on just about any surface. If you use double-sided tape on the lid, you can change the picture later when you’re ready for something new.

I hope you enjoyed this project and you use your imagination when looking for containers to re-purpose using duck tape! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

A Place for Special Treasures

When you were a child, did you ever have a place where you stored your special treasures? A box or a can that was just yours and you kept important little things hidden in it? Maybe it was a special picture that you colored or a keepsake from a vacation trip or a picture of you and your best friend or a really cool seashell or stone that you found or any number of other things. Today let’s make such a spot for your kids to hide their special mementos! You can use a box if you have one, but I used an empty oatmeal container.

First remove the lid and take a slightly damp paper towel and wipe out any tiny bits of oatmeal that might be left behind. Keep the lid off for a while so the container will dry completely inside. Now collect the other items we’ll need for this project such as a piece of construction paper, markers, a ruler, scissors, a pencil and tape.

Using the ruler, measure to see how long the side of the can is. We will be wrapping a piece of construction paper around it, but first we’ll need to cut the paper to the right size to fit top to bottom.

My container measured 5 3/4″ long in between the top and bottom rims. The size of my construction paper was 9″ x 12″. Take your piece of construction paper and mark a spot on each end whatever the length of your container is. Draw a line between those 2 dots and then cut along the line. For example, since my container was 5 3/4″ long, I cut my construction paper to a piece that was 5 3/4″ x 12″.

Take the piece of paper that you cut and wrap it around your container to see if it will wrap all the way around. Mine was a bit short and the edges didn’t meet.

I used the leftover piece of construction paper to cut another piece that was 5 3/4″ long and the width of the paper that was left.

I taped it on to the backside of my oatmeal container.

Now wrap the first piece of paper you cut around the container to make sure it will fit…but don’t tape it down just yet.

Mine fit just fine so then I was ready for the next step. Lay the first piece of paper you cut down on your table and write, draw and color whatever words and designs you would like to have on your special treasures container. I chose to write “My Special Treasures” in large letters and then in tiny letters at the bottom I wrote “This can belongs to Nita”. You can decorate your container in your own way. I drew some flowers, a bunny, a couple hearts, some designs and lots and lots of polka dots.

Once you have decorated your paper, its time to tape it onto the container. I used double-sided tape so that I could tape on the back side of my design. You could also tape it from the front side or use glue to hold it in place. I like the idea of using tape because later you can remove this cover and put on a new one.

On the back side of the container where I added the extra bit of paper so the container would be completely covered, it looked like this.

You can leave it like this or you can add a few more tiny designs to make that part blend in with the rest of your design. Since I had drawn so many polka dots, I just added a few more on this part.

And that’s it! Place the lid back on the top and go find some treasures to store inside!

I hope you’ve enjoyed our fun craft for today! May you find lots of wonderful things to store in your special treasures container! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂