DIY: Wind Rattle Bell

     Ever bored and have a few pop cans lying around? Well I did so I cut one up and ended up making something up on my first try, a wind rattle bell. Why the name? Well when shaken, this bell makes a metallic rattling sound instead of a chime. Today I'm going to show you how to make your own wind rattle bell. Just a warning, this craft is sharp so I don't recommend this for kids.
     You'll need a pair of scissors, a box cutter or craft knife, hot glue and glue gun, and string to hang the bell. As you start, plug in your hot glue gun so you don't have to wait for it to heat up when you need it.

Sorry there's no image for the gluing or the spiral cut,

I  had my hands full both times and I couldn't grab

the camera to snap a few more pictures to show

more of the process.

     First take a blade, I used a little box cutter to cut the top off, we don't want the bend, the metal isn't as flimsy. After that you're going to want to cut down the can in a spiral to get the length needed. I cut mine about the thickness of a standard pencil's width but didn't measure, it doesn't really matter if the size varies a little here or there.
     Once you've gone to the bottom as far as you can without cutting through a curve, chop the bottom of the can off, we don't need that for this project but you will for another I'll show you in another post. Okay so you've now got a line of aluminum, we're going to need to double it up so the ends meet, do not crease anything or it you'll have to smooth it back out.
    Grab the glue gun and put a dot on one end of the strip, press both ends together with one overlapping the other and another dot of glue so you envelope the shorter side with hot glue on both ends, this ensures that it won't be as likely to fall apart. Also the metal is hot so wear gloves you don't mind getting glue on them when you fold the metal or just don't hold down on the metal for long because it's very hot.
     Notice how the metal naturally curves? You can carefully stretch it out using a marker and let it take another shape, just don't pull so hard you give it creases which will not let it change shapes so easily. You'll want to find a shape, either by shaking or stretching your wind rattle bell out or by moving the loops around how you want them to be.
     To hang it just punch a hole through the part you glued, you can use a small nail or like I did, a thumbtack. make sure you press it against something like scrap wood that's sort of soft or has a hole in it already so the thumbtack has an easier time getting through it, or you can use a rubber mat or even foam. Just something so that thumbtack isn't fighting to go through not only the hot glue layered aluminum but whatever is behind it.
     Every so often you'll probably have to reshape it when the shapes stretch out, you can wind it loosely to give it more shape but remember not to crease it or you'll have to smooth it back out which is the great thing about working with soft metal is you can just easily take a marker and roll over the creases to fix them. I haven't tried mine outside yet but it worked just being nudged as long as you have it where the edges can brush up against each other to play their metallic music.

First wind rattle bell hung above the cans.
You only need one can per wind rattle bell.

     Warning; metal is sharp. Blades are sharp. Hot glue is hot, so is the metal when you fold it over said glue.
     Disclaimer; This craft is meant to be entertaining and not a post full of warnings. Also the picture of the two cans should not be confused with the bird toucans but I would love to see a toucan made of pop cans. Now that would be some recycling, a toucan out of pop cans.