Upcycled Design Lab Blog

Super Simple Upcycled Birdbath

For over a year now I have been planning to do something with my wok.  (I never cook with it.)  I suppose that I could have donated it someplace but the inside of it is not in the best condition and something about its rounded shape and pretty handles has made me keep it tucked away in my cupboard for all these years. 

 

I have been experiencing some serious spring fever this year and so of late a lot of my inspiration for upcycling projects has been focused on the yard and garden.  I recently made some garden fencing/edging from some wire hangers and I am working on another upcycled hanging flower basket that I hope to have completed for next weeks post.   I also have the beginnings of an idea for an upcycled mosaic project for the garden.  (We will have to wait and see if that one comes together.)

 

For you t-shirt enthusiast, fear not I am still plugging away at upcycling my pile of 20 t-shirts.  But they have been side lined a little bit by the call of the great outdoors.

 

Anyway onto today's project. I was planning to make a much fancier stand for my wok birdbath but in the end nothing worked as well as this simple tin can (I think it was a 32oz size.)  We have a lot of green trim on our patio so I decided to give the can a quick coat of color to match.  The rounded bottom of the wok fits smoothly into the open end of the can and the weight of the wok itself plus the water makes the whole thing quite stable.

 

 

 

Happy Upcycling

 

Upcycled Wire Hanger Garden Edging Fencing DIY Tutorial

 

I don't know about you but I have had spring fever since the middle of February.  Our grass is finally green the poppies are starting to grow.  I am itching to plant some flowers in our flower pots.  The lilac bush is in full bloom and my little mint patch is starting to grow, which brings us to today's upcycled project. 

I love the smell of mint and the bees that it attracts to our yard.  Maybe this year I will even use some of it to make a mojito or some mint tea.  Anyway, for the first part of the summer it grows nicely in its little designated corner of our yard but somewhere along the way it get a bit too tall for it's own good and flops over onto the flagstone in a pitiful little mess.  Last summer I was determined to get some wire fencing to reign it in but I never got around to it. 

 

A few days ago I decided to try to upcycle something to manage my mid-summer mint monster. 

 

Here is what I came up with.

 

Upcycled Garden Edging from Wire Hangers

 

 

 

 

For this upcycling project you will need.

7 wire hangers per section  (I needed 3 sections for this project)

Some low gauge wire (I used florist wire)

Wire cutters

Needle nose pliers

Tin can lids, bottle caps, Hot glue and or E-6000 Glue (optional)

 

 

Step 1 - Basic shape - Link the hanger hooks through each other to hold the two hangers together.

 

 

 

Step 2 - Lay a duplicate hanger pair next to first pair.

 

 

 

Step 3 - Lay two more hangers on top and bottom of shape.

 

 

 

Step 4 - Use twist ties to hold corners and center section together.  Don't worry about securing tightly or lining up corners and edges with the twist ties.  Starting with the corners secure with low gauge wire lining up corners and edges as you go.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5 - Then secure the center pieces to the top and bottom hangers.  At this point you may need to pull on the corners to get the hangers into a more square shape.  Once the hanger shape is fairly square you may want to secure some additional points with more wire.

 

 

Step 6 - Use needle nose pliers to crimp the hanger hooks into a tighter c shape.

 

 

 

Step 7 - I needed my edging to be curved so I used the needle nose pliers to bend the top and bottom piece of my fencing.  This is the first section that I completed.

 

 

 

Some of my hangers were different sizes so I had to improvise a little bit and my center section ended up a little taller than the two side sections.

 

 

 

Step 8 - Cut the bottoms off of hangers using wire cutters to make the spikes.  (I only used three on mine)  Use the needle nosed pliers to bend a hook shape at the top.

 

 

 

Step 9 - Hook the spike to the middle (top to bottom) of the fencing where two of the sections meet.

 

 

 

Step 10 - The spike piece should be at least 3-4 inches longer then the fencing.  Use wire to attach the spike to the fencing and to hook the sections of the fencing together.  Repeat until all sections are attached together and have spikes to secure them into the ground.

 

 

 

Step 11 - You could stop at this point but in the spirit of upcycling I decided to see what else I could use on my project.  I decided on bottle caps and tin can lids.  I used my hot glue gun to secure the wires to the backs and then wired the items on to my fencing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One note on the glue.  In some cases as I was wiring the items onto the frame, the hot glue didn't hold up so I used E-6000 glue to repair the glue job.  I am not sure how well either of these will hold up in the great outdoors but time will tell :-)

 

 

Happy Upcycling 

(Don't forget Monday is Earth Day)

 

 

Something Old (Nothing New)

My crafting efforts this week have been very unfocused.  I have dabbled with a few t-shirt projects and contemplated some upcycling ideas for the the garden but in the end nothing has really come together for this weeks post.  And so with some disappointment I bring you a project that I made a couple of years ago. 

I am keeping this post quite brief in the hope of moving on into my day and feeling some sense of accomplishment at the end of it.

 

 

Multi Media Collage Made from cardboard cereal box, magazine pages, old belt and other found objects.

 

Happy Crafting,

 

Eggsperimental - Upcycled Natural Egg Dying

 

 

I had so much fun last year dying Easter eggs with purple cabbage and silk neck ties, I decided to give some other things a try.  In the spirit of Upcycling I wanted to use things that I was going to throw away.

Here are the items I selected.

1) Black Olive Juice - Light Grey Eggs

2) Used Coffee Grounds - Brown Eggs

3) Yellow Onion Skins - Golden Orange Eggs

4) Beet Juice - I used the pickled kind which was quite unsuccessful.  I was hoping for pink or red.

5) Dandelion Greens - Light Yellow Eggs

I did select one other ingredient still hoping for pink or red:

6) Red Wine - Deep Grayish Purple

You also need some white vinegar.  Some tutorials have you add it to the dye bath others have you wipe down the eggs before you dye them.  I did some of both.

 

 

Some of the eggs were boiled in the mixture.  This gives a smooth solid color.

 

 

I also experimented with mixing colors and wrapping the eggs in the onion peels.  Here I added the onion peels to the red wine.

 

 

And let it sit over night.

 

 

The onion peel mixed with the dandelion greens yielded a more medium orange color.  I never did get my pink or reddish color but for the most part I was quite please with my eggsperiment.

 

Do you like my little upcycled egg stands?

 

 

Happy Crafting