How to Transform Your Salmon Cans into Holiday Lanterns
At Kvaroy Island, the Polar Night has already started! The darkness lasts from November until early January, which is why we love to get cozy and crafty at home. Repurposing what we have on hand is one of our most fun and creative pastimes.
What’s more, repurposing or reusing is one of the 6-Rs of sustainability: rethink, reduce, refuse, reuse, repair, recycle.
The key idea is that when we are done using something, recycling is actually the last option, and before that, we have plenty of other greener alternatives.
As we get only a few hours of light for two months, we take our candles seriously—just like our sustainability efforts!
This season, we decided to repurpose the packaging of our canned salmon. Both the paper and the can are recyclable, but are also so beautiful and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon or evening indoors.
After enjoying our tasty and healthy smoked salmon (which our partner at Fishwife brines in extra-virgin olive oil, natural sea salt, organic garlic salt, and organic brown sugar before smoking them in small batches over a mix of beech, maple, and birch wood), you can get creative with the can the fish came in. Cans are made of metal and metal can be recycled over and over again, but finding ways to reuse cans is also good for our planet, as it will save energy used for the recycling process.
Check out what we did with those cute little green cans!
After nicely washing away the oil from the tins, we decided to turn them into Christmas lanterns. And after the holiday season, it will be easy to change the exterior and still keep using the can as a candle holder—you can make different covers for spring, summer, fall, and other holidays. The possibilities are limitless!
The whole project goes quite smoothly, as we don't put labels on our cans, so you won’t have to spend hours rubbing off glue and stickers. Instead, you can effortlessly skip to the best part — the decorations! So here's what you need to do:
Enjoy our delicious, healthy, sustainably-farmed salmon.
Wash the can very well. Be careful not to cut yourself on its edge. We recommend using rubber gloves while washing.
Figure out what you want to do with the lid—remove or keep it on the can. If you remove it, don’t throw it away for now. We have prepared some other craft activities to repurpose the lids.
Start your creative process. Brainstorm, do an inventory of what you have at home, and choose the materials you would like to use for dressing up and covering your can. That can be paper, felt, ribbons, pieces of old socks, scarves, or sweaters.
Get crafty and let your imagination guide you in this creative process.
Pick up tea candles or make your own using soy wax.
If you are making your own, you will need soy wax, candle wicks, wicks stickers, pouring pot, and spoon. First, you prepare the can with the wick stuck on the bottom and then you melt the soy wax and pour it into the can. It needs about 30 mins to harden. And voila!
We want to see your koselig creations—share your holiday lanterns with us by tagging them with #kvaroykids and #koselig!