Recycled Aluminum Can Butterfly Embellishments

Sometimes I get in one of those crafty moods where I want to experiment and get a little messy. During one of these caffeinated sessions- I pulled one of my empty aluminum cans from the trash can, and thought “I wonder if this can be embossed?” Well, It can! It did! I am excited to show you how these butterfly DIY embellishments turned out!

Supplies needed to make your own butterfly DIY embellishments:

• Studio 71 Alcohol Ink Markers
• Fancy Butterfly Die Cut Shapes
• Embossing/Die Cut Machine
• Cuttlebug Embossing Mat
• Fine Spray Mist Bottle
• Squared Border Embossing Folder
• Brights 4.25 x 5.5 Paper Pack
• Glue Dots
• Empty Aluminum (Soda) Cans

The first thing you will want to do is empty a can or two. Any regular soda (aluminum) can will work. Rinse it out and let it air dry a bit.

Using an kraft knife, make a slit in the top of the can large enough to insert scissor blades.

Once you can insert scissor blades, cut the top and bottom of the soda can off.

Using the scissors, cut the aluminum piece into a flat rectangle. Be soooooo careful here – aluminum is super sharp when it is cut!

The rectangle piece will tend to curl up. That’s okay.

Arrange your desired die shapes on your die cutting machine base.

Cover the dies with the aluminum piece with the printed side of the can facing upward.

I found it helpful (since the aluminum wanted to curl) to use some small pieces of washi tape to hold the can in place.

Following the manufacturer directions for your machine, cut the dies!

Leave the aluminum inside the dies.

Run the dies back through your machine, this time with an embossing mat on top of the dies.

The embossing mat will “squish” the aluminum into the dies, and emboss it.

This was where I was pretty excited about this project. I loved the plain silver of the aluminum, but I also wanted to experiment with color!

That is where my Studio 71 Alcohol Ink Markers came into play!

Choose a palette that will blend nicely with each other.

These markers are vibrant, have wonderful pigmentation and are way more affordable than other alcohol ink markers I have shopped around for. This is a perfect project for you to get to know your marker colors, and practice blending.

I threw some color onto the butterfly shape and then I spritzed the butterfly with a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol.

The rubbing alcohol helped to bleed the colors into each other, and dried in a cool texture! I experimented with a lot of color combos. Even just a single color looked really cool with this technique. The color did not wipe off of the aluminum like water based markers would.

Since we don’t even have a shortage of soda cans around here- the creative possibilities are endless.

When I finished a few, I decided to be practical with my finished butterflies and throw them on a card base and some tags. The aluminum made it easy to slightly bend the wings upwards to create some dimension on the cards.

I adhered the butterflies easily with some Glue Dots.

I especially love this Squared Border Background Embossing Folder.

It is perfect for this butterfly DIY project. I just added a gem to the top and bottom of the frame, and a sentiment to the bottom.

Done.

Now I have several beautiful cards and tags on hand. Not bad for an afternoon of just wanting to play around with some craft supplies!

Save those aluminum cans! I hope you are inspired to recycle them into beautiful embossed butterfly DIY (or any shape) embellishments as well.

Shaunte

Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).