Popsicle Stick Cup

This next craft is a great way to turn “trash to treasure”! Using a can you would have otherwise recycled, you can create a pencil holder, flower vase, a cute place to hold hair brushes, whatever you decide. Use a masculine ribbon and it would be great in Dad’s workshop, or take apart an old tie and Dad can put it on his desk at work—the décor and usage possibilities are truly endless. I made this one with the intention of giving it as a gift, though I might end up keeping it because I like it that much! Decorate the sticks however you like, but I chose to keep them natural, as it went well with the orange flower.

You will need:

* 1 Can

* Hot glue

* Enough popsicle sticks to wrap around the can—I used 26

* Length of ribbon, large enough to wrap around the can with a small overlap

* Ribbon flower (tutorial at that step)

Step One:

Clean a can thoroughly and let it dry. Take popsicle sticks and a rubber band, see picture below. This step is just to measure out the number of popsicle sticks you need in order to wrap around the can.

One thing I should have done was laid each stick on the table here to see if any bowed, and then glue those on so they bowed in towards the can, rather than away from the can, if you skip this step it’s fine, but you may need extra glue for those ones.

Step Two:

Hot glue the popsicle sticks on to the can, spacing fairly close together so the can underneath doesn’t show through. If you had decided to paint your popsicle sticks you can choose to do so before or after they are glued on, that order isn’t necessarily important.

Step Three:

Wrap your ribbon around the can to gauge the size and then hot glue on, don’t worry about the seam, you’ll cover that with the flower.

Step Four:

Time for the ribbon flower! What you’ll need is 7 pieces of 2” long ribbon that is 1/4” thick, a button, and thread to match that button. Take each piece of ribbon and fold it in half and thread the string through the base to hold it together, keep doing that until all 7 pieces are on the string.

Join the ends together and tie off in a knot, shaping the flower as you go, then sew the button on in the typical way you’d sew on a button, and that’s it—you have a flower! Now you can embellish all sorts of things!

Step Five:

Hot glue the flower over the seam where the ribbon overlapped on your can. And that’s it! Add whatever you want to store in the can. What a great gift idea! Fill with fresh pencils for a teacher’s gift, or candy too. Keep it all simple and homemade and have your kids make you some handprint flowers with popsicle stick stems! (Hmmm...is that a tip on the next craft? Maybe….)