Painted tuna cans as candle holders

I wanted lots of lighting on the tables at our wedding reception. I did not want to spend much on candle holders so I started brainstorming and decided that tuna cans/wet cat food cans were the perfect size.

We started saving cans. We did a lot of dumpster (okay recycling bin) diving as well! No shame.

We cleaned the cans up and spray painted them with Valspar Crackle Spray Paint from Hobby Lobby, but you could paint them any color you like!

Base coat

Top coat

Thankfully my dad has a big shop so we spread newspapers everywhere. We did this during winter and even though the shop is heated I think they would have turned out better had it been warmer. Be sure to spray plenty of the gold base otherwise the top coat won't stick and crackle. We learned that the hard way!

I then used burlap to tie ribbons around the cans. I used just the strings of the burlap so I unraveled it and used 3-4 strings on each can. I'm so sad that I don't have any close up pictures of the final product, but hopefully you can find them in each picture and get a general idea.

They're not lit in this picture.

Do you see it? It's to the right in front of the plate of food and pop can.

In the middle of the pic between the two beers. I loved the glow they created.

They worked really well with these types of candles because they burn longer and since they don't have the metal around them they melt down nicely into the tuna can. Once the event is over you can toss the cans and don't have to worry about cleaning candle wax out. Since the cans are free your only expense will be the spray paint and candles. I recommend buying the candles in bulk online or use coupons on each box at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

P.S. Check out my other money saving wedding ideas below:

Wedding dress for less
DIY burlap wrapped koozies for wedding favors
Milk cans + branches + white lights for wedding reception lighting
Ball jars as candle holders
Learn to do updos for events
Flowers from Sam's Club for wedding
Wedding wrap-up