Trash-to-Treasure Acorn

We did a major purging of stuff in Trevor's play area recently. We passed along several toys to a younger friend, set others aside for Allison, and found dozens of things that will make excellent geocaching trading trinkets. When all those were removed and we'd organized the items we were keeping, we were left with a small pile of recyclables and garbage. One of them items in the pile was an empty toy container from a gumball machine. On a whim, I rescued it from the cast-offs and turned it into this:   

Wouldn't it be absolutely adorable to fill this with nuts?  What a fun treat!

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Trash-to-Treasure Acorn

Supplies: 

• empty toy container from a gumball machine
• sandpaper
• craft drill
• green paint 
• brown paint
• brown pen
• brown pipe cleaner

Steps: 

1. Lightly sand the outside of the container and lid. This will help the paint stick. 
2. Paint the outside of the container green and the lid brown. I did two coats, letting the paint dry completely between coats.
3. When the paint is dry, use the brown marker to draw diagonal lines on the lid to mimic the look of an acorn cap. 
4. Punch a hole in the top of the lid (I used the awesome Fiskars Craft Drill). 
5. Insert the brown pipe cleaner. Bend the inside to secure it in place, then snip the top and fold over the sharp edge.