Upcycled Design Lab Blog

DIY Make Your Own Upcycled Dog Toys

It has been rainy and cold here for the last several days and the dogs have been going a little stir crazy, missing their walks and being cooped up inside for most of the day.  In an effort to find some indoor entertainment I made a trip to the pet store for some new toys.  They loved this one for about 15 minutes.  (I am not exaggerating.)  The squeaker part of it lasted for about 5 minutes and in another 10 minutes it looked like this.

 

 

 

That was $5.00 not so well spent. 

 

After the new toy debaclel  I thought I would check out what some other folks have done to entertain their furry friends.

 

I was delighted to find many of the ideas used unwanted scrap materials that most people have around their homes.  I was doubly happy to find the ideas for this blog but also because my poor pups really need some entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

One of my favorite ideas was just to let your dogs clean out your old peanut butter jars.  I actually dug a jar out of my trash can.

 

 

I figured it would last at least a long as the "new" toy did.  :-)

 

I have been knee deep in T-shirts again of and I hope to have some project to show soon.  My main project is a sun dress made from multiple T-shirts so I have been spending a lot of time cutting out the screen printed parts of the shirts to use for the dress.  This of course has lead to a lot of leftover scraps.  I thought I would try to make some dog toys from the smaller pieces like the one in this video. 

 

  

 

Will have to keep you posted on how that goes.  I did ordered some squeakers from Ebay to put inside my designer dog toys but right now all I have is the idea and a big pile of scraps.

 

On the short term I think I am going to try the treats in a toilet paper roll trick.

Upcycled Neck Tie Egg Dying

Do you remember my suitcase full of old neck ties?  Well when ever I have a whole lot of one thing I am on the lookout for creative ways to use the items.  I did finally make a purse with some of the ties.  And I have come across a few other ideas like wallets and headbands but who knew you could do this with an old neck tie

 

(The answer of course is a whole lot of people as a simple google search will reveal.  But it was new to me and I just had to give it a try)

 

 
 
I know you may be thinking that I am having trouble letting go of Easter but we don't have to follow any particular calendar rules here at the Upcycled Design Lab.  So I am officially calling them Mother's Day Eggs even though it would be more appropriate for Father's day.

 

 Here is one of the many tutorials you can find on line.

 

 

 

My little egg gallery.

 

 

 

 

 
                            

 

 

 

As you can see some of the eggs turned out better than others.

Here is my favorite one.

 

The whole egg ensemble.

 

                                                                    

Eco-Easter Upcycled Gift Basket

Ok I know it is almost Mother's Day and I am just getting around to posting about Easter unfortunatly that is just the way I do things.

I am not the biggest Martha Stewart fan but she did inspire me to decorate my own eggs this year.  I used the red cabbage recipe.   

 

My eggs didn't turn out exactly like hers I don't know why mine are mottled instead of smooth but I thought they were very pretty.

 
 
 
Honestly they were the best part of my Easter Basket. 

Here is the link to the Martha Stewart Video

Natural Egg Dyeing

I made some upcycled t-shirt wrist-let coin purses for my nieces

 

and a pocket magnetic poetry for my nephew.

 
 
Even the wrapping was upcycled from old laughing cow boxes and a peanut can.

 

I painted them with bright easter eggy colors

 

The finished basket  was somewhat underwhelming but here is a picture of it anyway.

 

All in all is was a satisfying experiment.