Turning Soup Cans Into Pop Art Pencil Cups: a house log

Come on, could I pass up a chance to include this SNL clip? The answer is no. No, I could not. In other words: soup, there it is.

Anyway, I am beginning to think that Friday posts should be called Fast & *Nearly* Free Projects since we had Sir Butterfly last week and now we have a little soup can craft that I did in honor of my good friend Andy Warhol (ok, so we are only besties in my mind…). How cute are these folks holding some of Clara’s drawing supplies on her desk? The colors make me permasmile.

The first step was grabbing four of the limited edition tomato soup cans that Target is right now selling in honor of my buddy Andy. At 70 cents a pop, this whole project cost me $2.80 (since I already had the only other material I used on hand, but we will get there in a minute). First I emptied my cans of tomato soup into glass tupperware so as not to waste it (it’ll be lunch for the next few days, haha):

Then I carefully rinsed them out, doing my best not to soak the labels with water (slow and steady, baby). I let them dry out a bit upside down on a towel and even dragged a paper towel around the inside of each one to make sure no water was hiding in there.

Then it was cork templating time. Wait, perhaps I should explain that a bit more. The reason for the cork was because each of the cans has an odd little edge about a quarter of an inch down from the top of the can. So while the top lip of the can is not sharp at all, there is that little metal lip about a centimeter beneath it that I worried could result in Clara cutting her hand if she put it into the can and yanked it out swiftly. So I did the safety-first mom thing and chose that by making a little cork liner for each can, it would fully cover that little edge that is a smidge lower than the smooth top lip. The key was making sure the cork was tall sufficient to go over that lip, so there is no way a little hand (or tongue, or toe) could rub against that part anymore, because the little cork “sleeve” would extend above it. I in fact used a paper towel to make a template, like this:

Then I used my paper towel template to cut some cork rectangles of the same size:

I used old cork squares that I had (leftover from this project) to create the long rectangles that could be gently curled (do not be too rough with them or they can crack) and slipped right into each can.

Voila. A little cork liner to keep anything from being sharp (they also look fairly charming, like those old cork-lined pen holders of yore). And the cork is especially stuck in there once you get it in, so it is above Clara’s skill level to somehow wedge it back out, which is pleasant peace of mind for a paranoid momma like myself.

So that is my little $2.80 Friday project. Do not they look cute next to Clara’s little crayon-truck masterpiece?

Here is hoping Clara grows simply as fond of my BFF Andy as I have after years of studying him along with my other artsy friends like Klimt, Vermeer, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec (FIT, represent – we were required to take a million years of art history, and only now do I appreciate that).

Any other fast and nearly free projects going on this Friday? Any lively weekend plans? Any go-to artists? Oh and since I am sure folks will ask, those excellent stick-like colored pencils are from a local shop here in Richmond called Mongrel. Since Clara’s three go-to “toys” are rocks, sticks, and sand, I could not resist…