Here is a nifty way to take something that you would usually throw away and put it to good use. A CD music rack repurposed into a wine bottle holding
You know I love to use up every little scrap of fabrics I love. Remember how we pieced together this apron? So, here is another project for all your fabric scraps you've been afraid to throw away (despite all the eye rolling from your husband...). It will look cool in your new car! (or my new car) Funky, Fabric Scrap CD Holder Supplies: Fabric Scraps (cut into 8x5 inch strips) Sewing Machine Thin Cardboard or Sturdy Interfacing (cut into two 12x6 inch rectangles) Two additional pieces of fabric (cut into 8x14 inch rectangles) Scissors Hot Glue Gun Instructions: Roll one long edge under and press to create a hem and avoid fraying. Use a piece of fabric as a base (about 8x14 inches), and begin to layer your strips of fabric onto it. Begin at the top and layer each piece about 1/2 inch lower than the one before it. Pin and run a stitch along the edge. (This seam is just to hold your pieces together). Each layer remains open at the top and provides a little pocket for a CD. It will look like this: Flip your sewn strips over and center your cardboard or interfacing. Wrap your fabric around the cardboard. All these layers were thin enough to sew through, but too thick to pin...soooo I pulled out the duct tape to hold it in place! Here is the piece we will use for the back, covered with a single layer of coordinating fabric. And here is the piece we layered and sewed, also taped to the cardboard. Sew the fabrics onto each piece of cardboard and remove the tape. (Sew slooowly so you don't break your needle). Clean up the edges with your scissors. Now, you should have two fabric covered cardboard rectangles. One should have a single fabric covering it and the other should have your layered fabrics covering it. Hot glue the front and back together, just sandwich all the ugly parts inside! Flip her over and fill her up with all your funky tunes (because we do NOT listen to mom music in my new ride!) See? Cute, huh? Set it in your new car and wave it around to random people at red lights! Motion for them to roll down their windows and shout "Hey! I made this yesterday!" Some of them will point at you and tell you are #1 using their finger! Just turn up the music and smile... Don't forget that tomorrow is Tutorial Tuesday's Link Party. We will have prizes again this week. Come on back and teach me some stuff! .
Buy the best Wall Mounted CD Storage selected and recommended by interior designers.
Lots of tips for planning and organizing your sewing room, fabric, scraps, and thread. Plus the Quilter's Planner and free printable planning pages.
Hello everyone, and happy new year! The title of this post is probably not one to start your heart a’ racing . . . and happily its not often I get evangelical about, um, “storage soluti…
Upcycle is a buzz word which has been around for a few years now. For those unfamiliar it means turning something that is now waste or considered outdated into something of use, like when I turned vintage doilies into a bathroom curtain the other day. You can read about that here. My post today is about an upcycled CD storage cabinet which will find a new life. Here is the original CD storage cabinet. In its day...which wasn't that long ago, it was a very nice piece of furniture. This one is well made from pine, is quite heavy and I would imagine it had a hefty price tag brand new. I however managed to pick it up at the auction last week for a bargain price of $20. Such is the downside of technology changing so quickly...lots of landfill in the making! Now I need to make it clear...this is not my original idea. I think I first saw this on Pinterest, but I haven't been able to find it again. If you know who originally had this idea please let me know so I can give credit to that person. My first job was to remove these plastic inserts which actually held the compact discs in place. Looks easy enough...sounds easy enough...just remove the screws...oh wait, and the staples, hadn't noticed those, actually the easy part was the idea, the removal of this plastic was much harder than I imagined. If you have lovely small dainty hands you'll probably do this part much better, but I struggled working in the confined space of the cabinet. I had to stop after 30 minutes of struggling to go to the hardware store and buy a Philips head screwdriver with a short handle ($10) so that I could fit it and my hand inside the space to remove the screws. It didn't stop my hand rubbing against the plastic on the other side however...this was the result. So about now I was contemplating giving up, I guess sheer determination and that $30 already spent kept me going! After all the screws were removed, I used a chisel to pry the plastic away from the staples and then pliers to remove the staples. Seriously I thought this would be a fifteen minute job, may thirty minutes tops, but after two and a half exhausting hours (not counting my trip to the hardware store) and sore and aching hands, all plastic was finally removed! ( I did recycle the screws). So with that job out of the way the fun was about to start! There were lots of small holes from the screws and the staples that needed filling, and then a light sand all over was in order, thank goodness the mouse sander was small enough to fit inside the cabinet! All ready for painting. I chose Blake & Taylor furniture paint. I had the same issue with the painting, as I did with removing the screws, it was so hard to get my hand and the brush inside the confined space. I'm very pleased that I had Blake & Taylor paint because it doesn't require a primer and was easy to apply even with the difficulty of getting inside the cabinet. I love it! First coat done. The interior is Kettle Green, the exterior is Old White. The finished product, with its intended use illustrated. I used two coats of green paint and three coats of white then finished it off with one coat of wax. I am so totally happy with my finished toilet roll storage solution! It is perfect for my very small bathroom/toilet room. The paint came up beautifully and I am very glad I persevered when the going got tough...would I do it again? Probably not. The amount of work involved in this project makes it a perfect once in a lifetime do-it-yourself project, which is well worth doing. Lisa xx
Vinyl records are one of the most delicate pieces of entertainment media since it may quickly get damaged and wrinkled if it is not stored in the appropriate way.
As much as I love recycling, I'm becoming even more passionate for "upcycling"; a term coined to describe the reuse or repurpose of an item preventing its trip to the local landfill. Even before I started to seriously recycle, I limited the things in my home for decoration to those that would have more than one purpose. The baskets on the walls or shelves in my kitchen are easily grabbed when heading out to the garden or for serving homemade bread and dinner rolls. The photography I shoot ends up framed on the wall, as a framed gift, or is plucked from the wall to be entered into a photography show. If I tire of the tree branches I sometimes use for curtain rods, they can become perches in my hen house or kindling at a summer bonfire. My personality has always been a bit "efficient". Here are a couple of projects that would be considered upcycled. One is handy for around the home and the other one kids will adore. Currently, I am interested in taking projects like these which could be considered mundane, into the art realm. Saturday we have a "Pampering Night" for women hosted by our church. I have been asked to come up with an easy craft so they will go home with a little something. Because of my passion for recycled or upcycled art...we will be working with french fry boxes! Stay tuned....I'll post the results. blank cd container turned twine dispenser 2 liter and half liter soda bottles turned bubble blower (solution recipe below) Bubble Solution Items Needed • 1 cup liquid dish soap • 1/4 cup Karo syrup • 1 1/2 cups water • Large bowl (for mixing solution) • Container (large enough to dip cut end of your bottle in) Instructions 1) In a large bowl, mix together liquid dish soap, Karo syrup and water. Allow the solution to sit in an open container for at least a day before using. (The longer the solution sits, the better the bubbles.) 2) Pour the solution into a container large enough so that you can dip the cut end of your bottle. 3) Dip the cut end of the bubble blower into the solution. Place the small end up to your mouth and blow your bubbles. *NOTE: Your bubble blower can be used as a bubble wand - just dip in solution and wave the bubble blower through the air!
