Homemade Vase Ideas

Aluminum Cans

Use canned food-size cans for vases to hold small flowers and foliage and coffee and bulk-size cans for flowers with long stems and large blooms. Decorate the can to make it more attractive or leave it as is for an industrial look. Glue sticks and twigs around a can for rustic looking vase; for a nautical or ocean theme, use white rope, sand and seashells. Cut out pictures from magazines and give cans whatever theme you can dream of whether it be flowers from a gardening magazine or pictures of shoes and jewelry from a fashion magazine; use a decoupage method to adhere the images to the can.

Turn your favorite bottle of vino into an elegant vase for your dining room table or shelf. Soak the wine bottle in hot water to loosen the label, then remove it using your fingers or a butter knife if the glue is being particularly stubborn. At this point you can use the bottle as is or go through the process to cut the top off to create a wider opening. To cut the top off a wine bottle, score the glass with a bottle cutter around the perimeter of the glass. Rotate the scored area over a candle to get it hot, then immediately apply an ice cube. Eventually the glass will start to wear down at the score and the top will break off.

Instead of throwing away your old paperback books turn them into a decorative vase. On the side opposite of the spine, trace out a vase shape and cut off the ends along the tracing (you will need to do this to every page in the book, which will require cutting the pages in sections if the book is especially thick). Once you have cut off the ends of each page, bring the front and back cover together so the pages leaf out. Secure the covers together with tape or glue. A book vase can't hold water but it makes for an interesting conversation piece and it will hold dried or artificial flowers if you want the vase to function in the traditional sense of holding flowers.

Bring out your inner artist and mold a vase from scratch using homemade clay. With only flour, water, salt and vegetable oil, kids and adults can make clay that is perfect for vases. The clay can be air-dried or baked for less than an hour, making it ideal for last-minute projects. For a completely no-bake clay, mix baking soda, cornstarch and water; this mixture will take days to air-dry so plan ahead accordingly. Many other modeling clays made for pottery design require firing in a pottery kiln and need to be glazed for a proper finish; however, there are some types of clays that do not require cooking and can be painted when dry.