Four tin cans

I've been playing with tin cans, and made these pen holders. It's not very often I eat tinned food it took me a month to save these four. If you've got a tin opener that leaves a clean edge that's better, but mine doesn't so I squashed around the tops with a pair of pliers to tidy them up.
I used upholstery samples to cover them, but you can use any thick fabric, cut a piece that is twice the height of the can, and wide enough to wrap around the circumference, adding a quarter of an inch for the seams. Sew it into a tube inside out, I do it by hand. Turn it right side out and check that it fits the can exactly. Turn it inside out again. Cut two circles of fabric, don't forget to add enough for seams, sew one on the bottom of the tube, pin it first. Turn it right side out and check that the can fits snugly inside.

If you are going to decorate it with something soft like the two white crochet flowers, you can add those to the finished pen holder because it's easy to sew them on from the outside. But if you want to put something on that needs sewing from the inside, you need to do that before you put the can inside. It is very fiddly, you have to roll the tube down so you can get inside.

I cut seven small hexagons from aluminium drinks cans and pierced each one around the edge with a pin, and stitched them on. For the one on the right I cut three green strips from a shampoo bottle, and cut out three plastic flowers, and made the holes for sewing them on with a hot nail over the gas cooker.

To finish them off push the can inside down to the bottom, and sew on the second circle, you will have to do some of the stitching on the right side of the fabric, but it doesn't matter because this will be pushed down inside the can.

You can put any decoration on them, maybe personalising them with a name if you want to give them as a gift. They are soft on the bottom so won't scratch a desk top, and if they get dirt and fluff inside you just pull the inside out and give it a brush. Easy to make and an ideal way to use up scraps of material.
Daily spend - nothing