Upcycling tin cans: as DIY decorations as well as a mindfulness and relaxation exercise

simple DIY upcycling project for metal cans that you want to give a new lease of life and how home decoration can be a form of meditation to relax body and mind

playfully decorated tin box

For most of us, coping with stress is one of our daily tasks. Fulfilling the different roles in our lives is often exhausting. That's why we need activities that provide a counterpart to this and allow us to relax. Over the years, you, like me, have probably tried many techniques such as meditation, visualization, breathing, yoga, etc. Studies show that, in summary, all we need is an active life and moments of relaxation. Some may call these moments meditation, mindfulness or whatever, for others it is activities such as gardening or cooking that relax.

Everyone has a unique personality - so the right relaxation technique is different for everyone. While some people relax best by lying on the sofa and watching TV, others prefer to sit with family and friends to recharge their batteries. Even if these and other tactics seem to work for now, it is still helpful to find other ways to reduce the harmful effects of stress. Therefore, it is beneficial to look for ways that evoke our body's natural responses to relaxation, a physical and mental state of relaxation with a lower heart rate and lower blood pressure that reduces stress and tension and helps us to "repair" the effects of stress and restore our personal balance.

So what does relaxation of body and mind have to do with decorating our home or other DIY activities? DIY projects, in the broadest sense anything you can create with your hands, can help you de-stress your mind and let your emotions and feelings take over. Scientific studies show that working with your hands, such as gardening, pottery, painting, cooking, découpage, sewing, organizing or similar activities can help you relax and heal. When you have realized, created and completed something, it may also be a pleasure to admire the result you have created, to be proud of it or perhaps to share it with others.

Creating a beautiful, tidy, clean and appealing environment is, if it doesn't stress you out, a perfect way to reduce tension. Not only does the act of cleaning and tidying itself help calm the nerves, but also (re)organizing your life will have a positive impact on your daily life (check out Marie Kondo's website or her series on Netflix or read her book). Developing a system to clear your home of unnecessary or superfluous things will also help you feel mentally freer from unpleasant, bulky, disorganized thoughts and worries.

Meditation and mindfulness - the secret to a better life and an ever-useful trick: it's not just about unplugging for a short time, it's about doing it consciously. It's an effective but effortless way to reduce stress, anxiety and depression. A simple and perhaps repetitive activity that allows us to consciously focus our attention on the here and now, on ourselves, calms the body and mind. As you concentrate on your breathing (as with many classic meditation exercises) or simply on what you are doing (as a mindfulness exercise), you activate the "healing process" from the stress of everyday life. Scientists confirm the positive effect of mindfulness exercises, especially in relation to burnout and other stress-related illnesses, insomnia, high blood pressure, tinnitus and chronic stress. It's something you can do on your own, without outside help, that costs nothing. If you don't know where to start, you can download one of the many apps on mindfulness or keep reading my blog or contact me personally.

The concept of "actively relaxing" can seem confusing and contradictory. Being active involves a lot of things. It's best to do simple yet beneficial activities that require no effort, nothing that upsets you, makes you sweat or puts pressure on you - just a simple activity that is easy to do and helps you find your inner peace.

Have you ever watched a child playing with something new? The child is often completely focused on what they are doing, focused on the task at hand and relaxed at the same time. You could say they are in the flow. Being in flow is the state we strive for. This made me think that decorating a tin can is also a mindfulness exercise: touching the material, the sound when you touch it, the choice of colors and patterns and of course the crafting activity itself are opportunities to be completely relaxed in the here and now without thinking too much.

I have always found tin cans fascinating. Even as a child, I reused some cream, cookie or candy tins and used them as little treasure chests, for example as containers for my jewelry, even if they were of little value - I loved the finger rings I received as gifts from the pharmacy, which I could use to make clip earrings and nose rings. My colored pencils were also "at home" in metal tins. And of course, the tin cans were a good way to quickly tidy up all sorts of odds and ends. In my tin can collection, there were even little boxes for sewing needles and pins that had belonged to my grandmother and that I still use today for my sewing utensils. A large tin can that originally contained cookies - we found it in the bulky waste - houses our DVD collection and our projector. Traditionally, the Christmas cookies also come in tins every year, as they stay fresh for a long time (if they are not eaten beforehand). Long story short: I love tin cans in all shapes and sizes.

With environmental awareness and as the mother of a small child, I believe that recycling and upcycling tin cans for various purposes is a very good way to avoid unnecessary plastic packaging and a long-term alternative with charm, even compared to cardboard boxes, which break down more quickly.

My one-year-old son also loves opening and closing tins, hiding something in them, letting small round tins roll across the floor to hear them rattle or banging them on different materials as a study of their surface texture and resistance to scratches.

Apart from the fact that such tins (especially the antique ones, some of which are 100 years old) are fascinating, aesthetically beautiful, environmentally friendly and easy to reuse, they are also practical. What's more, if they came to us old, they tell a story and if we treat them with care and pass them on, they will one day be a memory.

In this post, you can see how an old metal tin, which wasn't particularly pretty and had advertising on it, was turned into a new personalized container with a bit of coloured paper glued to the surface using the découpage technique, for any contents - in my case, coffee powder.

For this DIY tin can upcycling you need:

• Tin can (you can find a large selection of cans here)

• Glue for découpage

• Thin paper that you like or découpage paper

• Flat paintbrush

• Spray paint, matt or glossy, if necessary

The surface just needs to be reasonably clean and coated with the adhesive. With a little patience, you can spread the paper out on the glue and place it accurately on the corners and edges. It is best to cut the paper to the right size beforehand so that you can work more accurately. You can also use several pieces of paper that you stick on overlapping. However, if the tin has a lid, there is a risk that the layer of paper will be too thick and it will no longer fit. For the tin you see in the photo, I only used one layer of patterned découpage paper. Apply another layer of glue over the paper. Done. If you like or want to use the tins outside, a little spray varnish can make the whole thing even more resistant, protect the tin from stains and achieve beautiful effects in matt or glossy.

For more decoupage ideas, take a look at the following posts: colorful decoupage trash can, Vintage glass bottle, beautiful individual wooden box or the unique goat head as wall decoration. If you would like to find out more about mindfulness, you can find a selection of books on the subject here.

These activities help you to create a safety net in your life that you can fall back on at any time when you feel stressed or overloaded. At the same time, you create a passion that is healthy, gives you joy and the opportunity to have fun with your creative results.

What are you waiting for to create your own projects? A big hug and see you next time!