My sister’s birthday falls in March, and she’s notoriously hard to craft for; but when it comes to her dog, she has a soft spot. This can art aluminum dog started with a handful of overlooked materials most people would pass right by.

If you’re an animal lover, or just someone who enjoys seeing ordinary materials transformed into something fun, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

On the subject of birthdays, mine is tomorrow! If you’d like to help me celebrate and support our blog’s mission at the same time, I’d be so grateful for a donation to our Alzheimer’s fundraiser.

Do It Over Designers

This post is part of the Do It Over Designers blog Hop, hosted by Ann at The Apple Street Cottage. We’re a group of bloggers who take something old and/or unused and ‘do it over’ into something new. These items can be found in closets, barns, garages, yard sales, thrift stores, you name it! Be sure to check out the projects at the very end of this post!

Our challenge this month is ‘Out of the Recycle Bin’. Of course, we collect a LOT of drink cans to make into can art for our CANvergence fundraiser, so there’s never a shortage of drink cans around here!

Cans on Display

Before we get to the tutorial, I promised I would share a photo of our CANvergence display at the holiday market last November. If you missed our previous post, best upcycling projects of the year, you’ll see we had our best fundraising year yet!

Over the last five years, since starting our fundraiser with our Crochet for Cure Crochet Pillow Cover, we’ve raised $18,225 for Alzheimer’s research. We’re looking forward to exceeding the $20K mark this year!

Can Art Aluminum Dog

My sister’s dog Britney is a dog with strong cat energy. She’s elusive, independent, and not easily impressed; come to think of it, not entirely unlike my sister herself!

I previously featured Britney in this adorable string art dog, but as far as I know, my sister has yet to hang it. Let’s see if we can impress them both with this can art aluminum dog – AND get it up on the wall!

Materials

[If you’re looking for some of the things we used, we’ve got you covered (disclosure): The blue links in this post may be affiliate links. We earn a commission from qualifying purchases which we proudly donate to Alzheimer’s research. But don’t worry, you don’t pay a cent more! Thanks for helping to support our fundraiser!]

• Saral white transfer Paper
• All in one black mineral paint
• Wood round
• Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue
• Curved scissors
• Aluminum drink cans
• 1/8″ paper punch

Draw your Pop Art Dog

Start by drawing your pop art portrait. I use Procreate; it’s easy to make another layer and colour it so I have a guide when choosing the aluminum cans. Of course, it’s just a guide; I tend to deviate as the mood strikes!

After that, I bring just the line art into Inkscape to centerline trace it and turn it into an SVG. More about vectorizing artwork in Inkscape in this tissue box cover post. Again, you only don’t have to do this part unless you want a digital version.

A digital SVG will allow me to test cutting this out on a Cricut machine – (or even on a laser cutter if I ever want to create this with wood – see how to laser score). However, I chose the old fashioned way; hand cutting with scissors. But not just any scissors. I’m using curved scissors to cut out both the paper pattern and the aluminum cans.

Trace Can Art Aluminum Dog

Before putting scissors to paper, trace the pattern onto your preferred substrate. I was going to use a square wooden artist panel (as shown on the video), but instead chose a wood round painted black.

I’m using Saral transfer paper in white to transfer the pattern. It’s the secret sauce to how to hand paint furniture designs too!

Pop a piece between the paper and wood round, then trace with a pencil. I like to put it onto a Lazy Susan so I can easily turn the work as I trace.

I went ahead and numbered each piece.

Saral makes quite the powdery mess on the black paint, but you can lift it off, to some degree, with tape. The instructions on the box say it erases like pencil, but I couldn’t find a decent eraser. In the future, I’ll have to be more careful not to number the pieces that aren’t covered with aluminum because I can still faintly see them.

Next, cut and flatten the cans. You can build your own cutting tool (see how to cut tin cans) using our own invention.

Or watch the video below to see the new upcycled can slicer I’ve been using since starting our CANvergence fundraiser.

By the way, I like to use every part of the can! See how to make an eyeglass holder using the pull tabs.

Watch the Video

The video demonstrates how I cut and flatten the cans to make the pop art portrait of my sister’s dog, Britney.

Tape and Cut Pieces

Use double sided tape to hold the paper pieces onto the metal.

As you can see below, you can get REALLY close with the curved scissors. It’s every bit as good as cutting by machine (which has its own challenges). It just takes a steady hand and some patience.

My favourite part of the process is choosing the parts of the aluminum cans to use. Here, the graphic on this Coors can is perfect for the ‘wiskers’ and also becomes the buckle of the dog collar.

Before gluing, dry fit your pieces to ensure a tight fit.

Glue the Aluminum

I’m using Aleene’s tacky glue and a glue spreader to spread it out on the back of the aluminum. A piece of parchment keeps your surface clean and allows you to get right to the edge with the glue.

I also use a clean piece of parchment to put over the pieces, then weigh them down as they dry. That keeps them perfectly flat; essential if your aluminum has a mind of its own and wants to bend the other way!

After gluing the first piece, I realized it was better to leave the paper pattern on to protect the surface of the metal from glue.

Finishing Touches

To make a highlight for each eye, I used a small paper punch to punch circles.

Then I glue each one on before gluing the eye in place.

There were only a few places where the paper stuck to the glue, but it was easily removed with a bit of scraping with a finger nail; so much for my manicure!

Don’t forget to lift up the double sided tape as you go too!

Lastly, I cut a pattern for the background. I was inspired by Romero Britto’s pop art animal paintings to punch up the background with even more colour.

Using the outline of the dog, I drew a pattern radiating out from the middle:

Here’s a reminder of my inspiration.

What started life as a pile of aluminum cans saved from the blue bin, now has a whole lot of personality. Cut, flattened, and fashioned into pop art fur and whiskers.

A quick birthday reminder before you scroll on to the posts at the very bottom; if you’d like to celebrate with me and support the mission of our blog, I’d be so grateful for a donation to our Alzheimer’s fundraiser.

I’m hoping my sister loves how I immortalized Britney in aluminum drink cans. What do YOU think of this one-of-a-kind gift?

Pin Can Art Aluminum

Do It Over Designers

Now, our talented blogger friends have some amazing and inspiring DIYs for you! Don’t forget to visit these posts for more upcycled do-it-over transformations!

• Birdz of a Feather (that’s us!)
• Exquisitely Unremarkable
• Little Vintage Cottage
• Modern on Monticello
• Pandora’s Box
• Purple Hues & Me
• Sum of Their Stories
• Vintage Style Gal
• The Apple Street Cottage