Soda Pop Can Hair Bows - Tutorial

Did you know that it was even possible to make hair bows out of soda cans?  I had no clue until a friend of mine mentioned on her blog that she was making and selling soda can hair bows.  The idea sounded preposterous at first.  Won't kids cut themselves on the bows?  I mean, we all know that the aluminum can cut you, right? 

Well, the idea still intrigued me enough to inquire about the makings of such a bow for my girls' hair and possibly to make a little extra $$ which we could all use, right?  After a few emails back and forth, I now had the information and instructions I needed to make the bows myself.  Now if only I could get my hands on some soda cans.  You see, my family doesn't drink soda very often at all so I enlisted the help of friends, family and neighbors to provide me with cans. 

At this point, I was a little nervous but I had a gazillion Mountain Dew cans from a neighbor so I decided to make those my practice cans.  I would make a couple of practice bows, besides, who would want green anyway?  Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.  And for me to say that is huge.  I'm tellin' ya, if I can do this, ANYONE can.  Seriously!  I'm the poster child of making simple things seem difficult.  Just ask my mom. 

Ok, let's start with two cans per bow.  Actually it's more like one and a half cans (if you're using the 12 oz size).  Choose cans in your favorite colors or brands.  There are some funky cans out there to be had!  Just sayin'. 



The first step after gathering your cans is to poke a hole near the top and the bottom of the can.  I like to do mine in the barcode/text area.  I don't plan on using those parts anyway.



 Next you will take your knife (or blade) and cut from one hole to the other.



At this point you'll have to start cutting around the top and bottom of the can in order to remove them completely.  You can use either scissors or your knife to do so.  I have found it easiest to cut about 3/4 of the way around with my knife on both the top and bottom, then using scissors the rest of the way. 





At one point I was having Anthony cut the tops and bottoms off for me but he was a little aggressive with the cans and was bending them too much so I fired him!  :)

Now be careful!  This is the only part that I'm ever scared of cutting myself on the can.  The knife or blade makes the edges very jagged and rough.  To get rid of this, you can use your scissors to cut the rough edges off or just work with the can the way it is, being very careful not to cut yourself.  And here's another tip:  using pointed tip kid scissors seems to make the edges even less sharp than using really good, sharp ones.  Besides, you don't want to ruin your good scissors anyway.  Not only that but the kid scissors make it easier to work with on the detailed parts which we'll get to shortly.   (That's a tip my friend gave me and I've found it to be true.)

Now you should have the tops and bottoms cut off the cans and what's left should be the body of the cans.  At this point they are curled up and won't lay flat.  That's ok for now. 



The next thing you'll need are some cups or other circular whatevers to trace and a pen.  You'll need three different sizes of circles.  Below are the cups I used.  The top of the Backyardigans cup as my largest circle (it just barely fit on the body of the can from end to end), the top of the pink one for my mid-size circle and the bottom of the pink one for my smallest circle.  Trace them on the silver side of the can with a pen.  Certain pens will actually write on the back.  If not, just press hard enough that it leaves an indent that you can follow with your scissors.





Now you'll just need to cut the circles out with your scissors. 

Pretty simple so far, no?  And now you'll need (or at least I did because I'm kind of a nerd) some coins.  I chose a game token (ever so slightly larger than a quarter), a quarter, and a dime.  Why in the world would you need those, you ask?  Well, if you're more talented than I, you probably won't need them at all.  My friend just eyeballed the next step but when I tried to eyeball it, I ended up with a mess.  The coins act as a guide for me. 

All I do is hold them in the center of each circle (the token over the largest, the quarter over the mid-sized, and the dime over the smallest) so I can cut into the center for the petals without going too far or not far enough. 

You can create as many petals as you would like.  I personally like eight.  There's really no rhyme or reason as to why I like eight other than it's just the easiest number to for me to keep the petals the same size.  You are more than welcome to do more or less depending on your preference. 

This is how I do it, I cut the top and bottom until I reach the coin. 



Then I cut the opposite way.  I now have 4 petals. 



Now cut each of the 4 petals in half.  VOILA!  You've now got 8 petals!

Do the same thing for all 3 layers using the respective coins as guides if needed.



To form the petals, just round the edges of each petal and shape to your desire.

 

Arrange your flowers however you want with the centers stacked on top of each other. 



You'll now staple your flowers together but make sure you staple them upside down.  The staple is going to act as your anchor for your alligator clip.  I always staple twice for reinforcement. 



Add alligator clip by slipping it through both staples.



Now you will want to bend the flower petals up on the middle and top layers.



To curl the middle and top layers, just use a pencil or skewer to gently wrap the petals around and curl.  You can curl the bottom layer if you wish.  I like the bottom layer to remain straight. 

 

Hot glue a jewel (or other cool, random something) into the middle.  This will cover the staples showing through.



And here are the few of the bows I have created.





[caption id="attachment_167" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Cherry Coke Zero"][/caption]

Let me know if you try this and how it turns out.  I would love to see your creations.  It's great to draw inspiration from others!

 

I linked this tutorial to Under the Table and Dreaming &