Tips for reusing empty tuna cans from the ThriftyFun community. Post your own ideas here.
Fill With Styrofoam For Decorating
Tuna fish cans make great craft project containers, push the container onto a piece of Styrofoam and push in to fill. Then decorate with items or flowers. I have used this in nursing home projects. Decorate the label area with ribbon, then make seasonal arrangements.
By Syd
Poison Mouses
I fill them with mouse poison and my DH puts them up in the attic crawl space for me. No more mice!
Tuna cans can be decorated and used on desks to hold paper clips and etc. In the bedroom - a coin tray,in the kitchen - a scoop, on the porch - as an ashtray. In the workroon for small painting jobs, in the car glued to the dasboard or floor - a cup holder.
Bake Cakes
Clean them out thoroughly, then bake fruit cake mixture in them to make individual cakes that make great gifts.
By Puppina
Hurricane Candles
I make walkway hurricane candlelabras by attaching cleaned cans to thick wooded dowel with nail or screw. Spray the can and dowel black. Then I attach a bow right below can. I use pillar candle with huricane globe. They really look nice lining a walkway. I use red velvet bows for Christmas, white for wedding shower.
Many Uses For Tuna Cans
Somewhere (I can't remember where) I saw an idea for a tuna can pin cushion. Fill the clean tuna can with polyfil and hot-glue a scrap of fabric over the top. Wrap a ribbon around the can to make it look pretty.
You could do something similar with green fabric and ribbon and a couple pieces of green felt to make a turtle.
They also make good trays for painting, especially for small children. They can swirl the brush around enough to get the desired amount of paint without worrying about spilling it and making (as much of) a mess.
They're also good for making poached eggs. Float them in boiling water, then crack the egg into the can and cook to desired doneness.
Cut a long strip from a pasteboard box, the width equal to the depth of the tuna can. Roll it tightly to fit inside the can, leaving a point of the end in the middle. Pour melted wax on the cardboard and let cool. You can take these camping, place stones around the filled tuna can, light the cardboard "wick" in the middle to start the tuna-can-burner. The fire should last long enough to cook an egg breakfast.
I use mine to attract birds outside. I fill the old tuna cans with bird feed. I then hang then on a hook steak that I got at the dollar store on sale. Just drill four holes in the can sides, then hook a chain thru them, and hook the chain to the hook. Birds land on the cans and feed from them. The hook and chain length helps keep red squirrels, and grey ones too out of the bird feed. I have yet to keep out the black birds though. They are trying to starve the nice birds that are pretty out. The gluttons!
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