Upcycled Design Lab Blog

Upcycled Magnetic Chalkboard Video

 

 

Just a quick post to say that I made a video from last weeks Upcycled Magnetic Chalkboard project.  I still have a lot to learn about filming and editing but I had a lot of fun working on this project.

 

 

Upcycled Magnetic Chalkboard

 

 

I think that Spring has finally arrived to stay in Colorado.  We are not expecting anymore snow storms just a few rainy days here and there.  So I anticipate working on some garden projects in the near future but this weeks project comes from the craft cave last week when I was still dreaming of spring.

I like to think that I am a fairly organized person but lately I seem to keep forgetting to pay my bills until the day they are due.  They often seem to disappear into the void that I call my desk.  I am not proud of the fact that there are time when the afore mentioned desk does take on some of the attributes of a black hole but there, I have admitted it anyway. 

 

Now most sensible folks might just resolve to keep their desks a bit more tidy but having lived with myself for close to 50 years now I have come to accept that I am not the tidiest housekeeper.  So my solution to my bill problem is to stop putting the bills on my desk at all.

 

:-)

 

I had the top of an old metal TV Tray.  Are you old enough to know what I am talking about?  They were popular back when TV channels went off the air and switched the the test pattern at 10:00 pm.  I would be giving away my age if I hadn't already told you how old I am.

 

 

After a couple of coats of chalkboard paint it looked like this.

 

 

I used a wire hanger, pliers and some elbow grease to make the somewhat acceptable hanger shape.

 

 

And then used E6000 Glue to attach it to the clips on the back of the TV tray.

 

 

 

In honer of spring, that I was sure would show up at some point even during last weeks snow storm, I made some flower magnets.  I still have quite a few scraps of t-shirts from my 20 T-shirt Challenge so I used some of the scraps to make the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I decorated some Altoid tins to hold the chalk and erasers.

 

 

 

So now I just have to see if this resolves my bill paying tardiness. 

 

 

I know you are thinking I should just clean my desk.

 

Happy Upcycling,

 

 

 

 

 

Upcycled Shoe Makeover - Cuz Who Doesn't Love "New" Shoes?

I love it when a craft project jumps out and calls me and then comes together in a couple of hours.  I was planning to share another t-shirt project this week.  Yes,  I really am still plodding away at the t-shirt pile. But this week I found myself in need a pair a black sandals.

I know you are probably thinking who doesn't own a pair of black sandles but I have survived the better part of the summer with only a junkie pair of black flip flops. And I suppose that the flip flops would have worked for my casual  lunch date but then I was inspired by these.

 

 

They have languished away in my closet for years.  I was never willing to part with them because they have simple timeless styling they are pretty comfortable, the soles are in good shape and I liked the color in spite of the fact that they were a little stained and I could never find anything to wear with them.

So with some fabric paint, shoe polish, a couple of 1972 silver dollars, some bottle caps and glue I threw this project together in time for my lunch date.  So easy and I am quite pleased with the result

:-)

 

Happy Upcycling,

 

DIY - Upcycled Bird Bath from Plastic Cake Container

 

 

I probably should be working on my T-shirt Project.  I started it almost a year ago and I still have a long way to go but I just can't seem to tear myself away from all the garden projects.

Here is my most recent one.

 

Watch the DIY video here.

Other upcycled garden projects

Upcycled Bird Feeder

Upcycled Wire Hanger Garden Edging

Upcycled Tin Can Planter

Super Simple Upcycled Bird Bath

 

Happy Upcycling,

DIY Upcycled Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder Tutorial (Part 2)

 

 

I don't usually like to brag, but in this case I will just a little. 

 

To be honest, last week, I wasn't all that confident that I would be able to complete this project.  Well, I figured that I would complete it but maybe not be that happy with the final result.  But as it turns out I am quite pleased with my little bird feeder but we will have to give the birds the final say.

 

 

 

So now where were we?   Well we started over here in part one.

 

Which brings us to here.  The glue should be dry by now so go ahead and remove the tape.

 

Materials and Tools

1 Plastic Container Lid (cottage cheese, sour cream I used a Parmesan cheese lid)

16-20 bottle caps

Spray paint and primer (I decided on a metallic theme because that is the color I had)

Low gauge wire (For decoration use whatever you want here.  The wire worked with my metallic theme.)

A pillar or stand (I had a metal thing not even sure what it was but you could use a candle holder, an old wine glass or goblet or maybe even a wine bottle)

Scissors

E600 Glue

Oh and of course bird seed

***

 

Step 13 - Take the plastic lid and trim the lip off.

 

 

 

Step 14 - Glue the bottle caps around the edge of the plastic lid.  They should overhang the edge but still allow the bottle with the tin lid to sit on top of the bottle caps.  Allow glue to dry.

 

 

Step 15 - Spray paint the bottle top and the bottle cap piece with a primer coat.

 

 

Step 16 - Spray again with top coat color.

 

 

Step 16 - Wrap wire around the bottle neck and secure.

 

 

 

Step 17 - Glue four more bottle caps in the center of the plastic lid to support the bottle.

 

 

Step 17 - Glue the two piece together.  Allow to dry.

 

 

Step 17 - Glue wire loop to back of decorative bottle cap and hang over bottle neck.

 

 

Step 18 - Glue plastic bottle and bottle caps to the base or stand.  Mine was a little tricky since I didn't have a lot of contact points to glue but it seems to be pretty secure.

My base looks like this:

 

 

Or maybe it was supposed to look like this.

 

 

Anyway I liked it like this.

 

 

Step 19 - Fill with bird seed.

 

 

Step 20 - Put feeder outside.  Wait and see what happens.

 

 

Happy Upcycling!!

DIY Upcycled Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder Tutorial (Part 1)

 

Oh my where does the time go? 

 

I haven't been crafting much lately and I was down for the count for a couple of days.  When I finally crawled out of bed it seemed that everything was out of control yard work, housework, Work work anyway I am beginning to feel like things are getting back to normal and and I am currently half way through with my upcycled bird feeder project. 

 

I am making it out of this :-)

 

So, with high hopes that I will be able to make a pretty little bird feeder out of a small collection of trash, here are the steps so far. 

 

I have to apologize in advance for my photos.  It is very hard to photograph clear plastic.  Hopefully they are good enough for you to be able to tell what is going on.

 

Material and Tool required so far:

One empty medium sized plastic bottle

One large can lid

One Brad

One Push Pin

Kitchen Knife

Small Piece of Corrugated Cardboard

Sharpie

Ruler

Painters Tape

Scissors

E600 Glue

 

Step 1 - Wash Bottle and remove label

 

Step 2 -Measure and mark the finished height of the bird feeder.

 

 

Step 3 - Line up painters tape along measurement points on the lower side of the measurement.

 

 

Step 4 - Add another row of tape to make approximately a 2" wide stripe.

 

 

Step 5 - Cut long the bottom edge of tape.

 

 

Step 6 - Cut tabs approximatly 3/4" wide from the bottom of the tape to the top of the tape.  Folding every other one up into the bottle.  (Tip you want to end up with and even number of tabs)

 

 

Step 7 - Cut off the tabs that are not folded in to the bottle using a v shaped cut.

 

 

At this point your bottle should look like this.

 

 

Step 8 - Remove tape and use a push pin and cardboard to start a small hole in each of the remaining tabs.

 

 

 

Step 9 - Make the holes big enought to put the brad through using a kitchen knife.

 

 

Step 10 - Stack each of the tabs on to the brad.

 

 

Step 11 - Press brad open when all the tabs have been stacked on.

 

 

The bottle should look like this.

 

 

Step 12 - Use the E600 Glue to glue the bottle and the can lid together.  Use painters tape to secure and allow to dry.

 

 

 

Well that's it so far.  Tune in next week to see what becomes of my ugly little bird feeder.

 

Happy Upcycling,

 

6-23-12 Update I finished the project here.

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)

 

 

DIY - Upcycled Business Card Rings - Make wearable business cards

 

 

 

I went a little crazy on Sunday.  Yep more than usual.  I saw an ecoetsy post on how to make functional business cards you know something that people would actually pick up and not loose or throw away immediately.  One of the ideas was a tutorial on how to make a wearable business card into a ring.

 

Well I thought this was just the cleverest cutest funest idea and I couldn't wait to try it.  The only problem is I don't really have a use for them right now.

 

However my sister sells her lovely HFR Designs fused plastic upcycled purses and bags at crafts shows so I thought that I would make a few for her and see how she liked them.

Since both of us enjoy upcycling and her products are made from fused plastic I made my ring bands from fused plastic instead of fabric.  I have a whole bunch of buttons and then I thought of using corks and bottle tops and I just couldn't stop. 

 

 

Just writing about it makes me want to stop and make some more.  I am wearing one right now as I type just because it make me happy and guess what else?  Well my plan and my hope for this blog in the year 2012 is that I will be able to post once a week on Fridays.  I have never been that consistent and of course it is only Thursday January 19 and I have decided that I just can't wait until tomorrow to share my little creations so here they are:

 

The Cork Collection

 

The Button Collection

 

 

The Bottle Cap  Collection

 

 

And

 

The Gum Wrapper Collection

 

 

Guess which one is my favorite?

 

 

 

Happy Crafting

 

 

My Cats Are Into Upcycling

I generally think of cats in two categories.  The friendly pet me, Pet Me, PET MEEEE PLEASE!!!! type "A" cat.  And the "Humans exist only to worship me, you can touch me only on my terms, make sure my food dish is full at all times, it never smells when I use the litter box,  I am supreme ruler of this domain. " type "B" cat. 

 

This is my type "B" cat Isabeau.  Resting on one of the dog beds because no one in the house hold messes with her.

 

 

 

She doesn't look particularly worried about the well being of the planet does she?

 

This is my type "A" cat Jumbeau.  (Sleeping sitting up???)

 

 

 

He doesn't let anything get to him.  Not even global warming or overflowing landfills.  He spends his days sleeping, begging for attention from humans and annoying Isabeau.

 

Now as different as my two felines are they do have some similarities other than just their grayish color.  They both enjoy the ever frequent cat naps that are often so close together that it appears as if sleeping is all these furry gray blobs do.  But every now and then they are awake and alert and they both like to play with trash.

 

I have tried buying them expensive cat toys.  Really I have.  I am a doting cat owner who isn't ashamed to spoil her feline children.  Ok I am a little embarrassed to admit that I spoil my cats.  But here is the truth of the matter my cats don't like store bought toys.  You know the fish and the feather cat teasers and the rattly plastic balls.  They pretty much ignore these items.

 

But give them a ball of tin foil and it's game on.

 

They love to play in and around empty cardboard boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

And the all time most favorite toy is this:

 

 

 

I wish I could get a good video of them playing with this piece of milk bottle top but they move like lightening when they play with this "toy."

 

This is photo was taken right before the jump to light speed.

 

 

 

Their beds are also made from upcycled items.  An old hard-side suitcase.

 

 

 

It is a little cozy but they seem to like it.

 

 

 

Their other bed or should I say Isabeau's other "bed" is a pillow case filled with old tee shirt scraps.

 

 

 

 I threw this "bed" together just for Isabeau because she must be allowed to sleep on my desk at any moment that she desires (and I prefer to keep her off of my computer and whatever it is that I dare to be working on in her royal presences.)

 

 

 

After all of this I have come to the conclusion that cats aren't really that smart (please don't tell Isabeau I said that.)  But really I don't think she knows she is playing with trash and sleeping in someones old suitcase.  If she did I am sure that she would protest or perhaps just go for my jugular in the middle of the night in the hopes that her next human servant would treat her in the manner in which she deserves.  But I wake up every morning (so far) with my jugular intact and she is still quite happy to play with her trashy treasures and sleep in not so catty cat beds so there is peace in our little kingdom.

 

Jumbeau I don't worry about.   He is like the Jimmy Buffet of the cat world.  I am pretty sure that in his head he lives in the cat version of Margarita-ville and nothing could ever really vex him.

 

Except maybe this.

 

 

 

Do you think they know I am mocking them? 

 

 

 

:-)

 

 

 

Upcycled Milk Cap Thread Holder

 This was such a quick and easy project.  And it solved the problem of all my thread thrown in a drawer.

Materials:  Milk jug cap, Chop stick, Glue gun

Instructions:  Hummm.....  I don't think you need any.

 

 

 

I was suprised how well they stand up.  They are kind of like weebles (remember those?)  They wobble but they don't fall down.

 

:-)