Outside the Cocoon

My Upcycling Challenge - Item # 4 Cereal Boxes DIY gift "bags"

As an EBay seller I have often used my empty cereal boxes for shipping items but I recently found a much funner use for those empty boxes.  I got the idea from Green Craft Magazine.  I made a few of my own modifications but the basics are the same. 

To make my cereal boxes into gift bags I glued two boxes together put a light coat of paint on the outside and decorated the outside.  The items shown here were for my mom and my niece so I tried to decorate the boxes accordingly.  I used a lot of magazine pages as well as scraps of ribbon, old buttons, an old CD, a wire hanger and even an old dryer sheet!

Box 1

 

  

  

  

Box 2

  

  

  

Lisa Guerin and Shona Cole are the artists who submitted the original cereal box idea to Green Craft Magazine.

Also check out these great projects made from empty cereal boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

Slice O Cake gift boxes

Stitched mini box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business Cards

Unique storage boxes

My Upcycling Challenge - Item # 3 Fused Plastic Bag Projects DIY journal covers / earrings

When you think about items to recycle or upcycle, plastic grocery bags almost certainly come to mind.  There is a trend toward eliminating the need for so many of these plastic bags.  We have all seen the reusable bags for sale at our local super market.  Still there is a surplus of this material.  From our newspaper delivery, our favorite retail shop or the take out food we order, plastic bags are everywhere. 

If you are a crafter and enjoy making useful or pretty things out of items that have lost their usefulness than you probably have already found some great uses for your excess plastic bags. 

For a couple of years my sister has been crocheting bags into new bags and purses.  Here are a couple of her creations.  Sadly I never learned how to crochet so I didn't know of any projects that I could do to upcycle plastic bags.

 

A month or so ago I stumbled onto a video on Etsy.com.  It is a tutorial on how to fuse plastic bags.  This new information got my creative juices flowing.  There are so many possibilities with this "new" material.  So far I have made some covers for hand made journals and some earrings.

    

 

I have seen some other really great fused plastic projects on Etsy.com, including pretty wallets and full sized rain jackets.  If you haven't tried upcycling plastic bags yet you should give it a try.  There are all sorts of possibilities. 

Check out these links for some fun and interesting projects that other people have created.

Craftzine Blog

Quazen.com

One last tip:  All the tutorials I have seen on fusing plastic tell you to turn the bags inside out so you are not ironing the side with the ink.  Unfortunately that is usually the most interesting part of the bag.  It will take some experimenting but by adding a layer of clear plastic to the top of your project you can use the printed side right side up.  Also experiment with heat settings different type of plastic bags melt at different heat settings.

My Upcycling Challenge - Item # 2 Plastic Gallon Milk Jug DIY

My latest upcycling projects use empty gallon milk jugs.  If you are a crafter this first use may be obvious but I had never never used it before.  The flat sides of the milk jug make great templates for stenciling and tracing.   There is of course a size limit but there is adequate space for most projects.  The storage is also minimal if you cut down the plastic milk jug you should have 3 to 4 nice sized blank templates easy to store and ready for your next project. 

The second use may not be an everyday sort of thing but it could come in handy for Halloween or your next costume party.

I designed a Mardi Gras Mask using the plastic milk jug as the base.  Many of the other materials used were also upcylced from the throw away pile.  The remaining items I had laying around the house.  I had a lot of fun with the project.  I even learned how to post the video on YouTube.  You can view the whole project  here.

I might have gotten carried away with this project because after I finished it I decided to make a few more. 

 

 

Here are a few more ideas on how to use those empty plastic milk jugs, bottles and cartons.

Cat teaser toy

Milk Carton Lamps

Milk Carton CD Envelope

Ghost String Lights

Milk Jug Skeleton Decoration

Giant Gladiolas

My Upcycling Challenge - Item # 1 Coffee Grounds

Since designing my own upcycling logo a few days ago.  (See previous post.)  I have been thinking about how to look at my garbage in a new way.  My logo has two arrows heading in a new direction from the traditional recycling loop and it has caused me to think that there might be at least two alternate second lives for some of my trash.  My challenge for myself is to ask are there two other uses for this item in my hand that I am about to throw away?  I am exempting a few items like used kleenex and paper towels but I at least want to contemplate the item that I am throwing away before I actually toss it. 

My first successful item is coffee grounds.  Right now I am storing them in a mixing bowl under my kitchen sink but I am anxious to finish off the milk in my fridge so I can re-purpose the gallon jug as a new coffee ground receptacle.  My two new uses for coffee grounds are:

1) Fertilizer for my garden and house plants.

2) Coffee / Chocolate Body Scrub.  Yes seriously.  Here is the link Coffee Body Scrub.

I haven't used the coffee grounds for fertilizer yet but I did try the body scrub.  While I don't think it made me look ten years younger or anything I do have to say it felt pretty good and left my skin feeling soft and firm.  It is messy and my bath tub was a little slippery afterwards but I will definitely do it again.

Here are a few links for additional uses for used coffee grounds.

Cocoajava  - Fun things to do with your coffee grounds.

Joey Green's - Wacky Uses for Maxwell House Coffee

If you are a coffee drinker and you are interested in the whole recycling / upcycling movement you should be able to find at least one way to reuse your old coffee grounds. 

Upcycling Logo

Update 3-16-11 

Hi I would love to have your opinion. 

If you are looking for upcycling logos I have created a few different versions which are posted on my other blog here.  I would really appreciate your thoughts.  If you have a minute please vote for your favorite in the comments section. Also...

 

 These logos may be used for school projects, events and promotional material for upcycling.  Please credit this site and or Upcycled Design Lab when using these logos on any printed material.  For internet use always link images back to this post. Please do not alter or use these designs as any part of a company logo. 

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks and regards

Cindy

Original post:

I have recently become addicted to the whole upcycling movement.  I confess that I am not the best recycler but the idea of taking something that is about the become garbage and making it into something that is worth keeping gets my creative juices flowing.  I was even part of it back in the early 80's before it had a name.  I made my Prom dress from fabric that was torn off of the sets of a summer theatre production of Mame.  There we were ripping this pretty fabric off the sets so that they could be painted and reused for the next production and I thought what a waste.  For some reason I blurted out  that I was going to keep the fabric to make my prom dress (never mind that I didn't at this point have a date.)

Fast forward to 2009 where the economic future is being painted as rather dismal, what better time to make more from less.  If you already enjoy upcylcing and or crafting you have probably already been to Etsy.  If you haven't see this sight give it a look.  It is a forum for buying and selling hand made items (some of them are really great upcycled items like this beautiful clutch you would never know it is made from fused plastic bags.) 

Credit for the term "Upcycling" has been given to William Mcdonaugh and Michael Braugart from a book they wrote on ecologically intelligent design called Cradle to Cradle published in 2002, but the origins of upcycling no doubt date all the way back to the caveman when the big thigh bone left over from dinner became a weapon and a hammer. 

So now we even have a name for this process of making trash into treasure, but a quick Google image search provides no universal logo for the new movement.  Everyone knows what the recycling logo looks like so I decided to upcycle it into an upcycling logo.  Here is what I came up with:

From this:                                                    To this:

 

It may not bring me fortune or fame but there it is anyway.

And for anyone who is curious.  Me in my prom dress in 1982.

 

DIY Dress Form (Do It Yourself Duct tape double) for under $35.00

The Story of how I came to make a Dress Form from scratch on a shoestring budget:

Like millions of other Americans my family decided to spend less money on Christmas presents this year.  Not surprisingly; our younger family members had trouble embracing this idea.   To aid in the shopping process we all made lists for one another.  One of the items requested by my teenage niece was a dress form.  I suspected that this item didn't fit into our predefined budget but but I am not one to turn down a gift challenge (at least not one from my nieces or nephew.) And so, I set out in search of a dress form.  I thought I might find a used one at a bargain price on EBay or Craigslist.  My search, however, was fruitless.  The cheapest dress forms were around $130.00.  Imagine my surprise when I stumbled on to a website that sold instructions for making your own dress form; from duct tape no less!!  This was even better as homemade items for Christmas are my specialty.  I couldn't resist.  The instructions cost $15.00 from Duct Tape Double .  There are some links for free instructions at the bottom of this post but the $15.00 was well spent in my mind.

Here is my finished dress form after following the directions from the Duct Tape Double.

Never one to completely follow the instructions I made a few modification.   I followed the instruction for the most part but remember I was on a strict budget.  The instructions called for a lot of stuffing.  To purchase all the filling new was not in my budget so I improvised.  I used an old towel and I wrapped it around the cardboard fabric roll securing it with what else but duct tape.  Then I used some old plastic grocery bags (the kind everyone has way to many of) to stuff an inside layer.  Finally I purchased some second hand pillows and recycled their insides for the outside layer of stuffing.

  

My total cost so far was $27. 59.  That included the $15.00 for the instructions, $6.50 for 2 rolls of Duct Tape and $6.09 for 4 pre-owned pillows.  All the other supplies I had on hand or got for free from the fabric store. 

I must say I was pretty pleased with the result but there was one problem....The Duct Tape.  First of all it looked a little too, well... a little too much like duct tape.  The second problem was that once you put a hole on the duct tape it is there forever.  I wanted this dress form to withstand lots of pinning and not look like an overused voodoo doll so I decided to make a cover for it.  I bought a second hand large mens shirt (note: it needs to be long enough to cover the full length of the dress form and long sleeves are best as you have a little extra fabric to work with.)  The shirt cost $2.75 bringing my total to $30.34.

To make the cover I cut off the collar and part of the sleeves leaving the length about 6 to 7 inches.  Then I cut open the side seams and draped the shirt over the dress form wrong side out. 

I pinned  the front together as if the shirt were buttoned.  Then I pinned  the side seams and darts.  Most of the fabric comes out of the side seams but front and back darts also need to be pinned and front bust darts as well.  It is important to keep opposite seams and darts somewhat even with each other.  Once all the pinning is complete the front is unpinned and the cover removed from the form. All the pinned seams and darts need to be stitched on a sewing machine.  Trim off the excess seam allowance on the side seams.  At this point turn the shirt right-side out and redress the dress form.  You should be able to button it up the front and have it fit fairly well.  You will probably need to make a few minor adjustments to the darts and side-seams at this point to make the cover fit as snuggly as it should.  I originally planned to sew the front together but I had a shirt with a nice front placket that covered the buttons.  I decided that not only did I like the way it looked but it might be a good idea to have the cover be removable. I figured there might be spots on the form that required patching after repeated pinning.  What else but a piece of duct tape would make the perfect patch!

To finish the armholes I folded pinned and tucked in the raw edges of the sleeve following the armhole seams and making it as smooth as possible.  Then I hand sewed the folds and tucks.

For the neck I sewed one of the extra pieces of sleeve into the neck opening.  I was planning to finish the top of the neck as I did the armholes.  While working on the cover I tied the sleeve in a knot just to get the floppy piece of fabric out of my way.  I discovered that I liked the way it looked with the knot and the cuff at the neckline and decided to leave the knot.

Once all the hand sewing was complete and the cover fit snuggly on the form I went back to the duct tape.  Tape the bottom of the shirt to the bottom of the dress form pulling slightly for a good tight fit.

Here is my finished Dress form with the cover:

 

If you look closely you can see a heart shape on the chest.  I accidentally cut a hole in that spot and was happy to have some extra fabric to patch with.

I confess that I enlisted my fathers help to make the wooden stand.  It consists of a rectangular piece of plywood and three pieces of 2 x 6 glued together and drilled with a hole the size of the card board fabric tube.   

Here are some addition links you might find helpful if you are interested in making your own dress form.

Duct Tape Dress Form 1

Duct Tape Dress Form 2

Molded papier-machce Dress Form

Paper-tape Dress Form