Soda Can Pansy Wreath DIY

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  Anne @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.

 Pansies are popular, cool season annuals known for their vibrant, "faced" flowers that thrive in spring and fall.  They are cute and colorful and come in a variety of colors - especially purple hues - my favorite, lol! Pansies are the perfect DIY project for me to create this time of year! Their flat, five-petal structure makes them particularly easy to replicate. 

This darling hand fashioned and painted pansy wreath is made from soda cans and tubing.  The technique involves cutting soda can aluminum metal into petal  shapes which are painted and assembled recreating the layered look of overlapping, heart-shaped petals placed onto and around a green hollow tubing base.  

Materials Used:

• Soda cans
• Utility knife/craft scissors
• Heart and leaves templates
• Masking tape 
• Parchment paper
• Acrylic paints/paint pens/sponge brush
• Quick Hold Glue
• Green hollow tubing
• 22 gauge wire

How To: 

Since I don't drink sodas anymore, my son saves his for me! First, rinse the soda cans and shake out as much water as you can. I like to lay the cans upside down on a paper towel and let them dry before cutting them. You don't want any sticky soda residue left on the cans.

Carefully cut off one end of the soda can using  a utility knife or craft scissors. *Caution: You may want to wear gloves for this! 

Then cut along the body of the can to the opposite end - it was easier for me to use craft scissors for this part .  . .

to remove the bottom of the can.

Be sure to cut off any slivers or jagged edges.

Smooth out the curve of the can by rolling on the edge of a table or countertop.

 Creating a flat rectangular sheet of aluminum.

Pansies have a unique and distinct five petal structure - to me, often in heart shape blooms with two top petals, two side petals and one petal at the bottom. I found a heart shape "petal" online and printed them out to use as templates. This is what they looked like after cutting them out . . .

and putting them together: Btw, the two top pieces are actually one heart shape cut into two parts!

Draw these petal templates directly onto the silver side of the flatten soda can . . .

and cut out.

This is what the metal petals look like put together:

But before gluing them together, I painted all the individual petals using a multi-surface satin acrylic called Juneberry and let dry.

Layer the petals starting with the two top ones glued together at the sides using Quick Hold glue, followed by the heart-shaped sides, glued together at bottom .  .  .

and finally, the bottom petal glued onto the center of the middle two petals.

Be sure to glue on the top petals behind the center petals.

Once all the petals are painted and glued together, it's time to add the signature "pansy face and whiskers" using assorted acrylics paint pens. You can tell I'm not very artistic when it comes to this part, lol!

Repeat the above process for making the leaves: First by drawing on the leaves to the soda can metal.

But after I did that, I thought of an easier way to cut the leaves out.  Fold a strip of masking tape together just short of the length of the leaf template and put on the back of the template. Then stick the template on the metal and cut the leaf out.  It was so much easier to cut all the curly portions of the leaves out this way!

Once all the leaves were cut out, add score lines or "veins" using the tip of scissors. But once the leaves were painted, I could not see the veins. So after the painted leaves were dry, I went over the veins with the scissor tip to see them better. The leaves look so much better and defined this way!

In case you're wondering, I found this tubing in my hubby's stash. I did ask him what it was for and he commented that it was originally from a garden watering system he had tried but didn't work out. Good for me!!! 

While the leaves were drying, it was time to wrap the tubing together in the shape of a 14" circle and securing in places using floral wire.

Once that was done, I needed to add the pansies and leaves around the circle.

I'm loving how this pansy wreath is taking shape!

So cute and adorable!

Here it is on the back of my front door!

And on my coffee table!

It's the perfect DIY piece to add an ever loving touch of pansy charm to your home! 

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:

Exquisitely Unremarkable

Little Vintage Cottage

Modern on Monticello

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Unique Creations by Anita

Sum of Their Stories

Vintage Style Gal

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather