How to Make a Tin Can Lantern

I love the look of Tin Can Lanterns and have added them to my Fall Mantel, but I especially love them hanging all over the yard from every tree during the summer. I had never tried making them and always wondered how to make a tin can lantern without crushing and bending the can.

How To Make A Tin Can Lantern

After a quick search, I saw many people poking holes like I would have and just trying to bend the can back into shape. Then I watched this video and of course!! Brilliant! Sometimes the answer is so simple and just staring you in the face!

How to poke holes in a tin can

ICE – For my latest Lowe’s project I had picked up a few small paint cans and wanted to make lantern. I filled them with water and placed them in the freezer. I left them for a few hours and probably should have checked on them sooner since one of the cans bulged from the expanding ice. The ice makes the can solid……..temporarily so you can easily poke holes without bending your can.

TOWEL – I used 2 fluffy hand towels. One for the can to lay on and one to make a round bumper around the can, holding it steady. The ice melts pretty fast and a few chucks of ice dislodge. I found having the bottom towel helped soak up the water. 

Hammer & Large Nail – I couldn’t find a large enough nail, so I used a wood screw……which worked just fine. I poked holes in the pattern I wanted free hand.  Place your nail where you want the hole and give it a whack. Make sure the nail is straight up and down so it doesn’t slip when you hit it.  If you wanted something more design oriented, I’d make small dots with a sharpie.

See, that wasn’t so hard was it?

Now you can spray paint them  or leave as is.  I used a patina ink stain, not really knowing what my end result would be. The jury is still out if I love them, but I did love making them.  If you want to put a wire handle for hanging, simply loop a piece of wire through 2 holes at the top on opposite sides.  The video I watched from Seattle Seedlings explains it way better than I could.