Crushed Tomatoes

Do you ever have the feeling that you are being guided by the unseen hand of destiny? That your path forward is already paved, but only being revealed to you one step at a time?

That's how I feel  about this pencil cup.

First-- You all know how much I love the blog MADE, right? Well, earlier this week she posted a tin can project-- that didn't use spray paint. Spray paint is right after hot glue in my list of arch enemies! Then, the very next day, I used a can of crushed tomatoes in some soup. And we have broken nearly all of our mugs that we use for our daily tea habit, and it would be so nice to recover the mug that currently holds our pens and pencils.

See... the universe made me do it!

It's a pretty simple craft. First I washed and dried the can. I also sanded the sharp edges a bit. Following the MADE's tutorial, I mixed my acrylic paint with mod podge.

I also made sure to coat the inside of the can with a thick coat of paint. By the time it was dry, it was smooth to the touch-- no sharp edges!

I did quite a few coats, using a hair dryer to dry in between coats.

I knew I wanted to cover the middle lines of the can, but burlap didn't look right.

So I auditioned some scrap paper.

The paper was a bit too short for such a wide can...

So I patched it with some tape.

All done! Thank you, universe!

Has anyone else ever felt compelled to do a certain craft? What are your favorite upcycling crafts?