Upcycled Red White And Blue Aluminum Can Cuff

Time for this month's Designer Craft Connection Blog Hop and the theme this time is "Celebrations" so happy birthday, America!! My present to you is this tutorial on how to cut aluminum cans and then how to use the metal to decorate a brass cuff. I love aluminum cans and after cutting apart thousands of them, I have finally come up with the best, easiest and quickest way to do it. Once you cut apart a can, you can use the flattened aluminum can to make all sorts of lovely things - die cut flowers, bird house roofs, embossed shapes for cards... the list is endless. And the best part - the cans are free! (Although, I must confess that I did buy the Budweiser can that I used in this tutorial - but only because it was so pretty!)

Here's how:

Upcycled Red White & Blue Aluminum Can Cuff

Materials:

• Brass Cuff
• Aluminum can of your choice

Tools:

for cutting aluminum can

• Kitchen Shears (these work great on aluminum)
• Needle tool / awl / or ice pick
• 2 plastic chopping boards
• Ruler
• Cutting mat
• Heavy duty gloves and safety glasses

for making cuff

• 3/16" rivets - 1/6" long
• Rivet Piercing & Setting Tool
• Paper tape

I like to poke the holes at the "seam" where the printed pattern sort of overlaps to keep as much of the design as usable as possible.

Now flip the can over in your hand so that you can cut the bottom.

Trim off all the jagged edges so that you have a nice rectangle.

It only takes 3 or 4 "pulls" to make the sheets nice and flat.

To cut an aluminum strip:

This is the coolest! Just flex the aluminum once or twice and if you scored it hard enough (but not too hard), it will snap apart cleanly with no sharp edges!!

Now onto the bracelet:

Look at the end of the brass cuff. See how the center part is flat and then the corners are curved? Measure the flat part and cut a strip just a little narrower than that. (If the strip is too wide then it bunches up and gets all "pokey" if you try to bend it over the curved corners.)

This little tool has a piercing side and a rivet setting side. It will easily pierce through the brass cuff and two layers of aluminum.

Rivet on more strips of aluminum to really customize the cuff.

I love how these cuffs look so "Wonder Woman"! Here's another bracelet made using a fruit punch soda can.

Pretty fun, huh?! Now that you know how to cut cans apart, if you're like me, it won't be long before you have a big stash of flattened aluminum sheets all ready for new crafting adventures! Have fun!!

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You can see lots more July Craft ideas by following along on the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop. Just click on the "hop forward" or "hop back" buttons on the badge to visit the next site. You'll be inspired when you see all that the Designers have created!

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