Upcycled: glass bottle to Easter decor

Remember the glass bottle I decorated for spring? Well, somehow I came across a similar glass bottle and this time decided to upcycle it into Easter decor.  

It was a very quick and fun project and I'm loving the bright colors. 

Yarn Covered Glass Bottle

Decorating glass bottles is something I've been meaning to try for a while. Last year I upcycled an insulated coffee cup and turned it into a flower vase (you can read about it here) but I'd never really picked up a glass bottle to work on it from scratch before. 

 

Upcylced: magazine cover to wall art

This was not intended to be my first project of the year, but when I received in the mail a promotional magazine from a cosmetics store with a beautiful cover, I knew I wanted to use it in some way.

As the theme seemed to perfectly match the concept of new year goals and all that, I turned it into a piece of wall art that now graces our home office.

 

Upcycled notebook

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm going to show you how I transformed an ugly notebook into something I can now use at the office.

I always like to have my own notebooks at the office, something pretty and not too large, so that it can't fit in my purse if I have to go out for a meeting. As the current notebook was coming to an end, I found myself looking at new notebooks in stores, looking for something inspiring, when I suddenly remembered - if I can make a notebook, why am I buying one?

 

Lace edged candles

I've had two candles - one blue and one yellow - in my crafts closet for a long time. Initially I bought them with the intention of creating a nautical decor with them. I even wrapped the lower portion of the candles with rope, but the whole think became too tick and not at all practical. 

Last weekend I finally decided I either tossed the candles or finished them. And since I was not going to toss two perfectly good candles, I ripped the rope and created a lace edging instead.

 

How to mend pants without knee pads

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm going to show you a quick and easy way to mend pants without knee pads.

A bit of background first: I have a boy that tends to come home from school almost every day with his pants torn at the knees. I have no idea if this happens with all boys or just with mine, but over the years I've developed several strategies to deal with it. It's either that or having to new pants every week. 

  

Of course knee pads are the most obvious choice in this case, and the best ones are those that you can iron-on and don't even need to sew (although from my experience they may need to be reinforced after being washed several times). But even if you make your own knee pads instead of buying them, they don't work on every pair on pants. 

Upcycled fabric covered tin can

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm showing you a very quick project using a tin can, some adhesive fabric and a piece of ribbon.
 

Upcycled fall vase

Sometimes inspiration strikes us in the most unexpected ways. 

I kept one of those tall insulated coffee cups stored in my office desk drawer for months. I never used it (I'll explain why below) but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away either. And last week, after reading this wonderful post (thank you!) on KBB Crafts & Stitches (which, by the way, was actually one of the features of The Really Crafty Link Party #86), I suddenly new what I had to do with that cup. And so I turned it into a fall vase!

This was the guilty coffee cup: 

I was a rather discreet shade of dark gray on one side, but had a large company logo on the other. It was actually merchandising leftover from a conference held at the office a while ago. I don't usually drink coffee (no special reason, I just don't like the taste) but I could have used it for tea, or even water. But you see that little piece of paper inside?

Well, in it was written, and I quote: "This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm." Now, I don't live in California, but I'm guessing this substance, what ever it is, doesn't cause harm only there. After reading that, there was no way I was ever going to drink anything from that cup - and giving it away wasn't an option either because I wouldn't want anyone else drinking from it.

So, I just threw away the cover (hopefully it can be recycled without causing too much harm) and proceeded to upcycle the cup, turning it into a vase. Here's the result:

I covered the cup with beige felt and then added the bow and the felt circles. I could have used any other shape but the circles were easier because I just used my Sizzix circle die to cut them. Here's how it looks from the side and the back (you can see the seam joining the two edges of the felt):

Other than that larger seam, everything else was glued.

And the best? Not only was the cup an upcycle but everything else came from my stash too, so it was all done at zero cost! Yep, my favorite kind of project.

And now I have a lovely new vase to help with the fall decor in my living room!

Happy Monday, 

Refurbished Laundry Basket

When my husband and I got married in 2004 and moved to our first house together, I bought a cute laundry basket to put in the master bathroom. Years later, after having two kids and moving to a bigger house, I got a bigger laundry basket for the laundry area kitchen, but I also kept the old one. It still lives in our bathroom. 

Upcycled Summer Shorts

Creating summer shorts out of old jeans is one of the easiest upcycles you can make, and one that I tend to dedicate myself to every summer - trying to increase the useful life of my kids jeans which, invariably, become too short to last another season. If the the jeans are still in a relatively good condition (holes in the knees don't count as you'll cut them out anyway), I usually turn them into shorts.

Basically you start with something like this:

And turn it into these:

All you need to do is to cut out the excess length and hem your new shorts. And then let your creativity run free and embellish those shorts however you want.

For this pair I used a cute polkadot gathered ribbon, and because I had a lot of it I decided to add it to the front and back pockets as well.

It took me less than half an hour to do all this. Now I have one  unique pair of summer shorts for my daughter and I still saved money in the process. Win-win all the way!

For more ideas on how to reuse & upcycle kids pants & shorts, click below:

Happy Monday,

How to line a basket in 15 minutes or less

Hello and welcome to another tutorial: how to create a basket lining in a quick and easy way.

First, choose your basket and fabric for the lining. I used a square basket but the tutorial works well for rectangular or round baskets too. 

Place the basket on top of the fabric and trace the bottom with chalk or disappearing ink. By tracing the outside of the basket, you are automatically creating your seam allowance. Cut the bottom piece of the lining. 

Then cut a piece of fabric wide enough to go around the outside of the basket and high enough to fold over the edge. This will be the side lining. 

Sew the short edges of the side lining right sides together, and then pin the sine lining piece to the bottom of the lining (right sides together), creating little pleats at the corners. 

Sew all around. 

Test your lining. It should perfectly fit the inside of the basket. As to the folded part, you have three alternatives: (i) fold it over again to hide the raw edge, (ii) sew a simple hem or (iii) add a bit of lace or a cute ribbon. 

I decided to sew a purple lacy edge I had in my stash. 

And you're done, you've created a simple but pretty lining for your basket!

Here's the finished product, side by side with the other basket I embellished for spring: 

 

This is also great to create gift baskets: buy an inexpensive basket, add a cute lining, fill it with goodies and you have a lovely gift. 

Happy Monday!