the crowd with an improvised pan flute, or you could go for a more direct approach.

In this project, we're turning bottle caps and drink cans, into sports-style party whistles,

that'll give you the power you need, to summon the attention you deserve

We’re all familiar with the term “lifehacks” but this summer, the guys at mike’s hard

lemonade asked me to help put a refreshing twist on it with what they’re calling “mikehacks"

"Mikehack" basically a lifehack that makes any social occasion, more awesome.

I tried hot gluing some glass bottles together, and found that yes, they really can work as

a pan flute. It's a pretty awesome idea, but can be pretty messy and take up a lot of space. So

let's try making another kind of party favor, that's just as awesome, but a little easier

to manage. We'll need to start this project with an empty aluminum drink can. Now if we

use something like a pair of scissors to make some strategic cuts, we can harvest a lightweight

sheet of aluminum metal. Now before you throw the scraps away, make sure you save a tab

or two, because we'll need those for measurements, in just a minute.

Alright, let's cut a long narrow strip from the sheet metal, making sure the edges are

as straight as possible, then cut a smaller, stubbier piece as well. You can see the long

strip is the width of a single can tab, while the smaller piece is as wide, and as tall,

as two pieces laid side by side. We need to join these pieces together with

the smaller rectangle centered on top, about a quarter inch down from the end. The two

sides wrap around the back holding it in place, and now you can snip the top corners off,

if you feel like it, and finish up by folding the tab over to lock everything together.

We've just formed the mouthpiece for our whistle. Now let's grab the other end of the strip

and push it back through the mouth piece, being careful not to bend it. You'll see what

we're going to do with this, in just a minute. Alright, it's time to get busy with our bottle

caps. I tried using a pair of scissors to snip the sides, and cut a little notch in

each cap, so when the two bottoms are lined up, they form a round container with a symmetrical

hole at the top. Let's bring back the piece we made earlier

and fit the barrel inside one of the caps, then expand it so it completely fills the

inside. Now that we know it fits together nicely, we can line the inside of the cap

with some hot-glue, then place the rounded strip back in position.

When the glue has hardened, it should look like this.

Now this is the point where we form the noise maker. Carefully cut the strip so it lines

up with the top of the notch, then pull the scrap part out of the mouthpiece.

There's only one thing left to do, and that's to add hot-glue to the other cap, and press the two

pieces firmly together, making sure the notches line up symmetrically. Now for one last embellishment,

I tried cutting one of the tabs in half, and hot-gluing it to the back, so now we have

the option of adding a lanyard. That'll just make it fully accessible, anytime we want it.

The whistle works by directing air through

the mouthpiece, and splitting it over the sharp edge of the metal. Not only does it

look good, but it actually sounds good too. If you try rolling your tongue when you blow,

it'll sound a lot like a referee's whistle, and it's really, really loud.

Well now you know how to convert your cans and bottle caps, into colorful and customizable party whistles,

that'll summon you attention when you need it, and make a great conversation piece when

you don't. Well that's it for now. If you liked this project, perhaps you'll like some

of my others. Check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com