How To Make Olipop Can Ornaments

We’re big fans of Olipop over here, and we acquire quite the stash of empty cans. The packaging is so vibrant + fun that it’s hard to just throw them away! This project is the perfect way to honor your empties, while creating some true holiday magic!

Aluminum can ornaments make the perfect gift for the soda enthusiast in your life. Up-cycled materials + handmade with love: It doesn’t get much better that that!

What You’ll Need For This Project

• An empty can
• Small scissors + a box cutter
• Star template
• Painters tape
• A cheap pen (We used a Bic medium point)
• Ruler or any straight edge
• A sharp tool to create the hole
• String or an ornament hook

Let’s Get This Project Party Started!

Wash out your can and set it upside down to drain. Then wipe the outside dry with a cloth. You don’t want to use a box cutter while holding a slippery can!

Use the box cutter to cut a slit in the can. You can also do this step with scissors, but the cutter makes it really easy. Now use a pair of small scissors (we swear by kids scissors) to cut a line from top to bottom, stopping at the lip on both sides.

Next cut around the top and bottom of the can. You want a long flat rectangle. Cut under the lip of the can, even if it means sacrificing some logo. You need your piece to be flat.

Discard the top and bottom of the can and dry the inside real well.

Cut around one of the stars on the template. Don’t cut on the lines, you’re  going to need some space around the template to put the tape.

Use the painters tape to secure the template to the INSIDE of the can, behind the part of the logo you’d like to show. Cut off some of the excess to make the piece of aluminum more manageable.

In the photo below we taped the template to the can, and then taped both onto a good tracing surface (in this case an envelope). You want a surface with some padding for the best impression, and doing it this way allows you to turn and control everything at once.

Using a ruler and your pen, trace over all the lines that intersect in the middle. You can totally go out of the pentagon. What you’re doing is making an impression. Press firmly, but not so hard that you’ll rip the template. We like to go over each line twice.

Now trace around the actual star. You DO NOT need to trace the pentagon.

Once all the lines are traced (we like to flip the star over to double check we didn’t miss anything), cut out the pentagon. You’ll notice there’s a little pen on this one. No worries! It wipes off easily.

Next you are going to cut little slits on the lines BETWEEN the points of the star. There will be 5.

After lots of trial and error we found that this is the best time to add your hole + thread for hanging. You can use anything that’s sharp and can make a hole. The little tool pictured above is the first thing we stumbled across and it did the trick. A nail or something similar would totally work too. Punch the hole and add your string. We like to keep ours long until the end (In our tutorial photos we added the hole last, but it’s important to note things we learned along the way).

Take a second and look at what you’ve done. Those little slits you cut have created two small triangles per point that you’re going to fold behind the ornament. We’ve seen lots of people create these without the flaps, but this method really creates dimension and clean edges.

Using your ruler or something like a business card, fold those triangles back behind the points of your star.

Amazing! You’re almost done! You should have a star now, all it needs is some dimension. Hold the star in one hand while gently rotating and pinching with the other. Slide your fingers under the 2 folded back triangles per point to create some space between them. Careful with the sharp edges!

Cut your thread to size or add an ornament hook, and you’re done!!! Below we’ve pictured an ornament with a hook, but we started using a thick silver thread (also pictured below) and like the look of that much more!

After making a ton of ornaments and using multiple methods we created a template of our own, but hands down the best downloadable template we found on the internet is from this Etsy shop– so we’d like to direct you there to grab one. This template helped us solve a major issue we were having with the edges on our initial template design, so we have to give credit where credit is due!

We hope you have fun making these ornaments! It takes a little practice, so be easy on yourself + save some extra cans to play with! If you’d like to snag some Olipop for holiday festivities, head over to drinkolipop.com and use the code DAISYMADE for 15% off sitewide. Cannot be combined with subscription.