Dumpster Diving To Treasure

We all need a little art project on the snow days of winter. Imagine making some garden art to add your own personality to your garden in the spring.

Other DIY projects to save money in your home.

If you read my Bio on my profile page, you would have read I love to make art from found objects. One of the coolest projects I did was to make a 34 inch across x36 inch long picture frame out of tin cans. There was no shortage of these cans because I live in a twenty-two unit apartment building. Lots of cans for lots of fun this time of year when money is tight.

This project uses a 3/4 inch thick plywood board cut to the above size. Also you need to cut a hole perfectly centred 15 1/2 inches across by 21inches long. This will leave your sides 9 inches wide and top and bottom 8 inches wide plenty of room for the covering with pieces of your cans.

Now that you have collected and washed your cans,simply cut off the tops and bottoms and saving the sides to use to cover the majority of your frame.

Using the sides of the cans cover the frame first screwing them to the plywood frame using #8x1/2 inch screws. Hope you have a cordless screwdriver because this project will take over 650 screws depending on how fancy you get. I burnt out one of mine on this project but luckily they were on sale a the time I did this.

Then I just tossed the lids and bottoms on the frame and screwed them down, over the can sides, where they landed , moving a few of them around for a better effect.

I also cut out triangles to make some tops look like suns, you are clever and can cut out what ever you want.

The best side effect of this frame is, it looks great and reflects whatever light hits it, illuminating it around your picture. Less cans in your neighborhood dump and a great art project for the whole family,maybe wear gloves the cans tend to get a little sharp.

I always use what I can find to decorate my apartment. Using things people throw away is a great way to save money on your decorating. Here are a few more of the trash treasures I up cycled to decorate with and the WOW effect, I got from doing it.