Saturday, May 23, 2026

Handcrafted Metal Solar Garden Flower

7:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me Do It Over Designers Blog Hop, Garden Décor Crafts, Soda Can Crafts, Solar Crafts 7 comments

Hello and welcome to our "Do It Over Designers" Blog Hop! The "Do It Over Designers" is a group of creative bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/ DIY, hosted by Ann @The Apple Street Cottage. It happens the 4th Saturday of every other month and it's all about taking something old and/or unused and 'doing it over' into something new. Sometimes Ann has a theme for the Blog Hop and for May, Ann decided on the theme, For the Garden: Where we are to upcycle something to put in a garden like containers, posts, a bench or chair, something unique as a bird feeder, birdhouse, birdbath, a trellis, stepping stones, get creative with a tree stump? You get the idea!

I decided to make a handcrafted metal solar garden flower primarily made out of soda cans (that I got from my son), plus the metal bottom of a candy container! It's something fun, sustainable and colorful for that special place in your garden, patio, or anywhere with your own outdoor setup! Powered by free solar energy, it absorbs sunlight during the day to create an incredible and relaxing lighten environment during the night! Sounds really cool and beautiful, doesn't it! Here's how to make one:

Gather the following materials:

Soda cans
Recycled candy container (round metal bottom)
Utility/X-acto knife
Scissors
Flower petal templates
Glue
Acrylic spray paint
Magic marker
SuperWeld Glue
Solar globe light

Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! Plus Google Adsense provides a platform for me to monetize my content by hosting ads from Google's network of advertisers. The money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!

How To:

Begin by washing out the cans to remove any sticky residue and let dry.

Using an x-acto or utility knife, start by making a slice big enough for a scissor blade and then cut the tops and bottoms off with scissors.

Next, cut through the length of the can to open and cut off any metal slivers or jagged edges. *CAUTION: Be very careful with the sharp edges of cut cans.

Roll the cut aluminum piece in the opposite direction . . .

smoothing it out over something like a table edge or counter top to help remove the curl of the can.

I wanted to make a solar flower mimicking a zinnia so I cut out one of the petals from this free image I found online and . . .

enlarged it to about 5"x3" and placing it on the soda can metal to . . .

cut out. I was able to cut out two petals per soda can. It was easier for me to just hold the template in place and cut the petals out instead of tracing the image outline first with a marker and then cutting it out.

And as I was cutting them out, I arranged the petals in a circular pattern to see how many I would need:

I knew I needed a base to attach the flower petals to, so I looked in my recycled bin and pulled out this candy container that's turned upside down so you can see the bottom that I will cut off.

Using a utility knife to remove it.

The base (diameter) is a little over 8" wide and the circumference is 19.5", which makes for a nice size solar flower base to glue the petals on.

The flower is beginning to come together!

I did cut out a few more smaller, 3"x1.75" petals to fit around the center you'll see later.

And now it's time to paint the petals and base outside!

It's been awfully hot (in the high 90's) these last few days so it doesn't take long for the paint to dry.

Once dry, I marked each petal with lines, using a marker, like the template had. Afterwards, the petals needed to be shaped a bit so I rolled the tops and . . .

bottom edge of the petals using the tube of a magic marker.

Then glued the petal bottom . . .

to the metal base.

And continued gluing on the petals around the base.

Once the first row was glued on, I started the second row. After gluing on a few petals, I placed the solar light (3.93"D x 3.93"W) in the center for spacing the petals and . . .

after gluing on the smaller petals! I think the solar garden flower looks gorgeous and I love the colorful glow of the solar light!

Outside on the patio!

Darkness, just before the rain!

I'm loving this outdoor patio and garden look!

This handcrafted metal solar garden flower is . . .

a charming garden accent by day and a magical glowing centerpiece by night!

Before you go, don't forget this is a blog hop and all of the designers have some amazing and very innovative projects to share with you.

Be sure to visit all of this month's creative projects by the

"Do It Over Designers" listed below:

Tania @ Little Vintage Cottage

Patti @ Pandora’s Box

Gail @ Purple Hues & Me

Anita @ Unique Creations by Anita

Julie @ Sum of Their Stories

Cara @ Vintage Style Gal

Ann @ The Apple Street Cottage

Sara @ Birdz of a Feather

Kim @ Exquisitely Unremarkable

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Terrain Style Taper Candle Cuffs

7:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me Beaded Wire Crafts, Creative Craft Hop, Taper Candle Cuffs 8 comments

I love looking on the Terrain site (a sister brand of Anthropologie) since it mostly specializes in natural "garden lifestyle" brands and natural seasonal decor or nature driven brands. In Terrain's home decor section, I discovered several taper candle wreaths or candle cuffs which truly inspired me to make my own! Here are a few selections of Terrain's candle cuffs:

Hello and Welcome to this month's Creative Craft Hop co-hosted by Sara @Birdz of a Feather and Donna @Modern on Monticello who take turns every other month! The lovely and creative Sara is our host for this month! I'm so glad you're here checking out our creative projects for the month of May!

Candle cuffs can turn a plain taper candle into an artistic creation, adding extra sparkle and style. Imagine adding them to a tablescape for a simple and festive centerpiece or transforming your plain candles into festive decor anywhere in your home. So let's turn a plain taper candle into a stunning creation by making a taper candle cuff! Here's how!

Materials:

Taper candle & candle holder
Floral wire (20 gauge and 22 gauge)
Measuring tape/Ruler
Wire cutters/nylon jaw pliers/round nose pliers
Crystal Beads

How To:

Making a DIY wire candle cuff is a simple project that involves wrapping or twisting floral wire to create a decorative base that will fit a taper candle, then embellishing it with crystals or beads to form wire branches around the decorative wire base.

First, I loosely measured around the taper candle and got about a not quite three inch diameter. You want to be able to easily place the cuff on the candle and not have the cuff fit too snug and possibly scraping the wax.

Then I started guesstimating about how much wire I needed to twist, etc. and came up with twelve inches to fold and twist . . .

and created a plain twisted wire ring similar to the Terrain style that would fit around the taper candle. If you look at the Terrain's pictures of candle cuffs, the twisted wire looked hand twisted and very natural like the one I created.

Then I thought I should make something a bit fancier with crystals since the twisted wire ring looked so plain and I wanted to make something different from the Terrain ones. Since the candle I'm using is pink, I pulled out my pink crystals (8mm) and a ruler and placed rows of two crystals along the three inch mark of my ruler - totaling 22 crystals to start.

Then, once again, I guesstimated the length of wire (about 14" folded) I needed to weave the crystals onto the wire.

Starting with groups of four crystals and sliding them onto the wire . . .

and twisting the wire once.

Then adding groups of four crystals to the same wire and twisting the wire once the crystals were added until . . .

all the crystals were added to the wire. I needed to add two more crystals to make the grouping of four even for a total of twenty four crystals.

Then I started shaping a ring of the wired grouped crystals . . .

and closing the ring of crystals with the wire that is left on one side. Next, wrapping another folded wire into the ring wire on the opposite side.

To balance the look, two more folded wires were wrapped into the wired crystal ring on opposite sides - in other words, the folded wires are secured in the 12, 3, 6, & 9 positions. *I realized that I had to increase the length of wire added on the remaining three to about 24" giving me 12" when folded so I would have enough wire without having to add more.

Now, it's time to decide how to decorate the wire extensions. Begin by making several twists of wire to one of the folded wires extended from the decorative ring of crystals.

Thread a bead to the middle of one of the wires, and twist several times to secure the bead in place. Thread a second bead about 1 1/2 inches (or less), from the first twist, and twist again several times.

Make a third extension, adding a bead and twisting wires, as before.

Continue alternating wires, threading a bead and twisting to form branches

until . . .

you've created three extension branches. I forgot to take a pic without the flowers attached to the ends of the branches. So don't dwell on the flowers right now, lol! Continue making branch extensions to the three other group of wires.

To complete the look, lets make crystal and wire flowers to attach to the end of each wire extensions. To do this, begin by taking a 15" length of 22 gauge wire, folding one end over about two inches. Then slide a bead on all the way down to where the wire begins to fold.

Take the end of the longer length wire and insert it into the opening of the crystal bead and . . .

pull the wire end through the crystal until a small loop is formed at one end of the bead.

Once you have the small loop, separate the wires on the other end and . . .

insert another bead onto the longer wire, as before.

Then take the end of the wire and insert it in the opening of the crystal. Pulling the wire through the crystal until . . .

a small loop is formed. Be sure to move the crystal as close to the previous crystal as the loop is formed.

Continue adding crystals to the wire until . . .

the third crystal is attached and . . .

the forth one and finally . . .

the fifth one is attached. Be sure to straighten out the longer wires and begin twisting them together.

Then take the twisted wire and . . .

twirl it into the center of the beads, cutting off any excess twisted wire.

Make several more for a total of . . .

twelve flowers - for each candle cuff. I know there are eight flowers pictured below, but you'll need twelve flowers all together.

Attach the beaded flowers by wrapping the wire ends of the branch extensions to the back of the flowers, through to the front and back again, twisting the wires together to secure. Straightening and smoothing the twisted wires out as much as possible.

I think I got carried away with making this taper candle cuff, lol! It seems to be a bit bigger than my inspirations! But I'm loving it! And hope you'll try your hand at making one.