Tag Archives: Upcycling

DIY: Handpainted giftwrapping from cardboard boxes

upcycled_cardboard_boxes

How-to transform a boring cardboard box into something cute, beautiful and worth taking care of instead of throwing away, with very little work. This is a good little project to do with your kids.

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Mini-diy: Homemade beads from electrical cables

I recently found about 40 meters of electrical cables in the trash at work. It’s threaded with 4-7 strands of solid core wire which I needed for a DIY project (to be revealed soon), and I ended up with quite alot of white plastic tubing that I really didn’t want to throw out.

So I simply cut them up into beads, and mixed them into our little art supply box.

If life deals you an excess of electrical cables…
DIY: Homemade beads made from electrical wires
… then upcycle them into lemonade! No, beads! These are telephone wires I believe.

Cut with a sharp knife, as smooth and straight as possible
DIY: Homemade beads made from electrical wires

Just takes a few seconds
DIY: Homemade beads made from electrical wires

Mixed in with storebought plastic beads
DIY: Homemade beads made from electrical wires
My kids seem to never tire of making necklaces. I’m looking forward to seeing them incorporate some free, upcycled, environmentally friendly beads as well.

Reuse, resist!


Upcycled Eco Warriors

Upcycled tyke # 4 : Elton

This is a good project to do with kids. Just start gathering bits and pieces of junk in a box, or clean out a few drawers, and you soon have enough raw material to create your own little eco warrior tribe!

Any material can be used. On the creature above we have a wine cork body, milk bottle cap feet, Elton John glasses made from a piece of balsa from a broken 3d puzzle, some feathers, a thumbtack nose, and eyes made from nuts. Oh, and the mouth was cut from a newspaper.

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Found: Art Dolls from Blue Chair Press

I love upcycling, and creating art and beautiful objects from found objects and trash. To be creative and to do my part for the environment makes me all tingly inside. I found these cool looking dolls inspirational, I think I will try to make something like it when I get the time.

Callie
Art Dolls from Blue Chair Press
: ”

DADA DOLLS *

Created almost entirely of recycled elements. Each comes with its own story. ”

Callie

In her dream, Callie heard a knock on a door. It was out of place in the forest she was walking through so she reluctantly shook off the babbling brook and birdsong for a reality check. It was not repeated but she slipped on a robe and went to the back door, the entrance she used when coming in from the beach. Sandy footprints led across the deck, to the door, and down the back steps. Sitting squarely in the middle of the welcome mat was a wooden box. “Colonial Chocolates, Long Beach, California”, she read. No note, no clues, and no one in sight in the peachy dawn…

Update: Reminds me a little of my own Eco warrior series

Smileplastics

smileplastics
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Smileplastics has created a solution that gives hard plastics a new life as building materials. On their website you can see interesting uses for this mixed plastics material. I’ve been facinated and frustrated with plastic for years. It is a beautiful material with endless uses, strong, and colorful, but we usually use it to make things with a very limited shelflife, like shampobottles and cheap toys that get thrown into a landfill after use. It is difficult to recycle and reuse because there are so many different ways to create plastics, making it hard to mix it up and create something new in a predictable fashion.

But it seems like smileplastics has found a way to do it. Check out their stuff on www.smile-plastics.co.uk.