Jazzy vintage New Year Noisemaker is our "Craft of the Year!" A recycled soda can, dried beans, some fringe and a yarn pom pom make this a fun and glittery accessory for your New Year party.

(click here for a larger New Year Noisemaker image)

Those straight-laced Victorians gave themselves one day to cut loose - New Year. If you've seen or read depictions of the holiday, it was a time for dancing, drinking, kissing on the sly, and making NOISE! Vintage noisemakers from the era included rattles, pans, gongs, fire crackers, and various firearms too dangerous to mention. 

New Year noisemakers were usually home-made, just like the confetti and Grandmamma's cherry brandy. Our version is similar to commercial rattles of the period, although the yarn and fringe embellishments are an upgrade from the standard crepe paper.

We particularly like the recycled nature of this "soda can" craft. Dried beans in an aluminum can make a nice, celebratory sound - and who doesn't have a few soda cans around the house? The other materials you probably have on hand, too. 

Serving suggestion: Make 6-8 of these in different colors. Create a table centerpiece of florist's foam covered with greenery and ribbons, and arrange your New Year noisemakers in it.  When the clock strikes 12 - everyone grab a noisemaker and celebrate!

Materials for New Year Noisemaker

• Vintage Image Template (FREE PDF download) printed on lightweight or medium weight photo paper.
• Empty pull-top, 12 oz., aluminum soda can (see Tips).
• Wood dowel, 1/4" diameter, about 18" long.
• Dried beans (see Tips).
• Medium cardboard, like tag board.
• Yarn in a coordinating color (we used Red Heart Soft Yarn, worsted medium, in a multi-colored color called Embers-9543).
• Gold fringe (see Tips).
• Gold sequin strand.
• Gold spray paint.
• Double stick tape or spray adhesive (see Tips).
• Hot glue gun (see Tips).
• Tin snips (metal-cutting scissors).
• Scissors or paper cutter.
• Hole punch (1/4" hole).
• Fine-tooth wood saw for cutting the dowel.

Instructions

1. Cut a roughly 1" hole in the center of the top of the can with tin snips.
   
   
2. Measure the inset top of the can (ours was 1 7/8" in diameter) and cut a cardboard circle that fits. Punch a 1/4" hole in the center of the cardboard circle.
3. Cut the dowel to about 18" long with the saw.
   
4. Shoot a large glob of hot glue down into the center of the bottom of the can. Working fast, insert the dowel and stick it in the glue as close to the center as possible. Hold it until the glue hardens.
5. Drop in a small handful of dried beans.
   
   
6. Put the dowel through the hole in the cardboard circle. Apply hot glue around the inset top of the can and press the cardboard circle onto it until the glue hardens.
   
   
7. Spray paint the can and dowel gold.
8. Print and trim the vintage image. Adhere it around the can with double stick tape. Be sure the top of the image is facing the right way and that the dowel is at the bottom!
   
   
9. Time to decorate! Make a 3" diameter yarn pom pom for the top of the can. Click here for pom pom instructions. Flatten one side and adhere it to the center of the top of the can with hot glue.
10. Using hot glue, adhere a string of sequins around the top of the image, and fringe around the bottom (dowel end) rim.
11. Yes, you can do more - glitter is always appropriate. And in Victorian-speak, "more is more."

Tips

• We suspect that nowadays, all soda cans in the world are exactly the same. Ours was a basic pull-top Coke can, 12 oz (355 ml), of extruded aluminum. That is the can we designed our image template to fit. If your soda can is a different size, you will have to resize the PDF image.
• We were so surprised when we shook our New Year noisemaker for the first time. It was noisy! The dried beans worked great. Short on beans? How about ball bearings, pebbles, marbles, pasta, screws or bolts, or anything small and hard.
• Your New Year noisemaker can be embellished in many ways. We used scraps of metallic gold fringe (1.5") and gold sequin trim. You'll need about 7.5" of each trim to go around the can. Try braids, cording, lace, ribbon, silk flowers or whatever you fancy. Ribbon streamers and bows tied to the dowel would be festive. And don't forget glitter. The Victorians didn't.
• We used double stick tape all around the back edges of the image to adhere it to the can. For an even firmer grip, you can use spray adhesive, but remember: spray glue is not repositionable and it is very difficult to get the image on perfectly straight on the first try. The same goes for printing on self-adhesive sheets - it could be a big challenge to get it aligned on the can.
• You really need a hot glue gun for this craft. You could probably make the noisemaker with white craft glue, but we doubt it would hold up under vigorous shaking. If you don't have a hot glue gun, you might try using clear caulking adhesive.