Pop Top Can Tutorial

Here is a project I shared at the party that I promised to come back and share more details and pics for: a pop top can full of get well goodies! All you need are a pop top can and smooth edge can opener, I got this one from Pampered Chef.* It is a great can opener to have, not having to worry about cutting yourself or your precious little kids fingers on a jagged edge! After taking off the BOTTOM lid, I removed all the contents, washed the can and removed the label. Now it is ready to alter, don't throw out that lid, because you're going to glue it back on!

Although I took some liberties on the design to make it prettier, I intentionally made the top of the can red (the new Lipstick Red, cuttlebugged with Victoria) and framed up my soup bowl to look like a packaging label, referencing a can of Campbell's Soup, of course to go with my soup bowl image! The bowl is paper pieced with the same DP as on the bottom of the can, Basic Grey Junebug, doesn't that pattern look so elegant on the china bowl? I put a punched border of Black Onyx in between the two papers. That gorgeous border around the image and sentiment is from the new StampTV Kit "Organize It!" and I just love how this looks around a single image and greeting from "Square Pegs"! I colored it with Lionet Gold Copic.

After decorating you. re ready to stuff it with goodies! I put kisses and tea bags in mine. It is best to choose things that are individually wrapped if possible to keep the contents fresh and prevent a mess. Then you just glue the bottom back on and let it dry over night with a strong glue like super glue, E-6000, etc. Leave it bottom up and perhaps put something heavy on top of it. Hot glue might work also, if it does, let me know!

Last I added some of the gold lined black organdy ribbon around the pop top, it looks prettier and makes it easier to grab onto the top to pull it up.

Here is a closeup of the label. I actually cut out the middle of the bowl where the soup would be colored it in with Lionet Gold Copic, which I also used on the border, and then added the small strip of bowl above it with my Quickie glue pen. Instead of trying to snip around the steam, I just colored that part in with my white Inkssentials pen. I added a little shadow below the bowl onto the dish right over the pattern (this really adds a lot of depth to your paper piecing, try it!)and underneath it with C-3 Cool Gray Copic.

These pop top cans are such a fun and inexpensive way to present a gift, and later the can can be re-purposed as a pretty pencil holder. You might want to put another label on the back with a get well recipe or message to further personalize it. I will be back with more projects with this image, it's one of my favorite in the set, and not just for soup! :)

* if you are looking for a GREAT Pampered Chef Consultant (or interested in becoming one), I'd like to recommend our dear friend Ana Lewis. My husband has know her since college and she already involved with Pampered Chef when I met her in 1997 (has a huge downline and earns the dream vacation every year), and has four children of her own, three of which she home schools, so she REALLY knows about juggling a family, home, career and still have time to make wonderful meals for the family while feeling pampered in the kitchen! A wonderful tip she had for me when she sold me on this can opener years ago (before I even had kids!) was to create a mini pantry so to speak of assorted emptied cans for her daughter's little play kitchen! She had stacks of empty fruit cocktail, tomato sauce and soup cans she was able to pretend going to the grocery store and use to "make dinner", so cute! You can find Ana's website here.

PS Ana did NOT ask me to tell you about her :)