Apr 26, 2011

REUSE, REPURPOSE, UPCYCLE

My three favorite words lately.

REUSE * REPURPOSE * UPCYCLE

Thanks to the lovely Heather Leigh, I’m loving all things repurposed! If you do not follow her Repurposing board on Pinterest… you really should! She pins the neatest ideas!

Like this one:

Repurposing a laundry detergent bottle into a watering can!
(first seen here)

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Can you say LOVE!
I hadn’t bought a watering can for the garden yet, because…
well, because they’re too darn expensive,
and I knew I could somehow make something to do the trick.

I actually had an 8 dollar one in my cart the other day,
then put it back before heading to the check out line.

The very next day, Heather pinned this Upcycled DIY Watering Can!
The best part about this: I just threw out TWO detergent bottles!
I instantly went and fished them outta the garbage!

It’s super easy too.
Just rinse out the detergent bottle until there are no soapy suds.
Take a drill with a tiny drill-bit, and start making holes in the cap.

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Don’t forget to put a hole or two in the handle for air.

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All my temporary planters are upcycled too!
I feel it makes my little garden even greener!

It works just as well as a store-bought watering can!

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TIP:
You don’t need a million holes like I put.
Making the holes was the most time consuming part of this mini project, and while this one works GREAT, I do believe it would have worked just as well with less holes.
Thus, making this little Do-It-Yourselfer even faster.

How about you, what have you repurposed lately??

# kristanlynn

Apr 15, 2011

Fabric Covered Cork Board: A DIY Tutorial

I’ve been meaning to make this for a long time., and finally sat down yesterday to put it together. I figured some of you might want to make one too. So I took pictures a long the way.

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Materials:

  • Cork (I got a package of 4 (12 x 12) squares at Walmart for 6 bucks)
  • Fabric (I used a Fat Quarter, which was more than enough. You could also upcycle old sheets, an old t-shirt, table cloth.. etc…)
  • Cardboard (I used cardboard from an old box)
  • Ribbon
  • Thumb tacks
  • Dress pins
  • Hot glue and glue gun
  • Iron
  • Scissors

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Lay out your fabric and cut 1 inch around the coark board.

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Iron your fabric so it is nice and crisp.

Cut your cardboard the same size as your cork.
Hot glue the cork and cardboard together.
(You can skip this step if your cork is thicker. I added the cardboard to keep the tacks from showing through on the back side)

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Center your cork on the fabric and use the thumb tacks to secure fabric to the cardboard/cork.

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Fold the edges as if you are wrapping a box.
Make sure you pull the fabric TIGHT while securing.

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This is what you should have so far:

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Now we can start adding the ribbon.
You could wrap it in one long piece and secure with thumb tacks.
OR
You can do it like me:

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I cut the ribbon as I went, leaving an inch hanging over each side.
I spaced the ribbon about an inch apart.
You could space out much further if you’re wanting to display larger things,
(I wanted mine to display all the lovely business cards I’ve received)

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Secure ribbon with hot glue. (Later I added  tacks to ensure the ribbon would not slip.

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I changed up the color of the ribbon. But one color would work well too.

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Now it’s time to create the pockets. Place ribbon the same way you did before, just from the opposite side, creating diamonds or rectangles (as pictured above).
Secure in back with hot glue and tacks.

After all the ribbon is secured in back.
Push dress pins through each ribbon cross:

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Take a pair of needle-nosed pliers and bend the back of dress pin so it faces the cardboard.

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Cover the backside with contrasting fabric or packaging paper…
and VOILA! You’re done! +


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You don’t even need to cover the back if you don’t want to, no one will see it.

Enjoy! Would love to see some of the ones you make.

# kristanlynn