Crafty Project for a Bread Crumbs Can

If you take another look at your bread crumbs can, you'll see they are very sturdy containers that can hold just about anything. They have plastic lids, which we all know are not biodegradable and dangerous to the environment.

Doing my part to recycle, I have always found ways to use these wonderful canisters. Not only are they great for storing things like cookies, sugar, doggie snacks, rubber bands, you can also use them for hardware in your garage and put nails, washers or scissors, etc.

Today I decided to make something I really needed; a place to store my buttons. This project shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes to complete.

CAUTION: This is not a child's project because of the hot glue, scissors and the metal edge on the inside of the can, not good for tiny fingers.

What you need:

1. Bread crumbs can

2. Duct tape

3. Scissors

4. Hot glue gun

5. Buttons

6. Ribbon

7. Letter beads (or you can use scrabble letters or you can write on the can with marker)

Step 1. Get your bread crumbs can, make sure there are no bread crumbs left inside and peel off the label, careful not to press too hard on the metal edge. If you have delicate skin, you may cut yourself.

Step 2. Wrap duct tape in color of your choice along top of can until you touch the other end, then snip off and keep going down the can until can is covered. If you find there are bubbles, just press them out.

You can find colors and prints in duct tape just about anywhere, even online. There are some really cool prints out there too.

Step 3. Wrap ribbon of your choice around can and using hot glue gun to dab a little to hold it down, tie a knot and make a bow. Then put a little bit of glue in the center of the bow against the can to secure it in place. When you have it where you want it, snip off the ends of the ribbon.

Step 4. Find buttons and glue them to the can. Be careful not to linger with the glue on this duct tape for too long. It is made of plastic and will melt, so you don't want to put too much glue in one spot. If you have a small glue gun, use it instead of a bigger one. If you only have a big glue gun, dab a tiny dot of glue, about the size of half a peanut. Glue buttons to make it look like a buttoned up shirt with a bow tie.

Step 5. Glue letter beads and spell out the word "buttons".

For a little extra, I glued another button on the top of the lid.

Now when you look for your buttons, it's going to be easy to find where they are stored and you may not even want to hide them because the can looks so cute.

Tip: Whatever you store INSIDE the can, glue a sample OUTSIDE the can.