Making flowers with napkins, paper towel or gift tissue paper.

My little one wanted to give his mummy a little rose last night, we improvised with a piece of left over tissue paper from christmas, and and a green pipe cleaner (optional) for the stem.
It's probably the easiest upcycling I published in his blog so far, even my 4-year old could do it!

Starting material

By starting in one corner, you just have to roll the paper to create the rose, starting tight to create the heart and then get loosen.

If you have a pipe cleaner to make the stem, it looks great, if not, you can just play with the paper and roll it to make the stem, like with this napkin or (unused) tissue paper:

probably not a great picture, but you got the idea.

You can also create leaves from the paper by tearing a piece. When I was a kid I used to make these flowers at the end of diner... I guess now it's my son's turn.

Wishing you a merry christmas!

What a cute upcycling, isn't it?

Pendant light for the kitchen

I thought you might like this upcycling... Making holes in the containers is necessary to get more light in the room. The base is a pizza pan.

A table made with shipping pallet

This week end I was amazed when I saw this table. It was in a shop that sells all kind of furniture in Baltimore: Su Casa. I couldn't resist and took few pictures. The table was not sanded but the maker added some extra wood at the edge of the table to give a clean finish. In spite of all the great furnitures sold by the shop, this is to me the best one!

Upcycling door knobs

found here

A good way not to trash door knobs.

A kitchen cabinet made from shipping pallet

This cabinet was made and found on Shabby Love blog. Probably one of the best good looking upcycling I found with shipping pallet.

On her blog, you'll find a full tutorial. This furniture is not so difficult to make, you'll just need drywall screws, a screwdriver and a circular saw (or jig saw), also, 4 hinges and 2 cabinet knobs.

The main frame

That's a lot of extra storage for almost free and it's really good looking, go check her blog, here.

Ribbons dispenser

A great way to store, organize and upcycle!

Upcycling wine barrels into bottle holder

Clever...

Giving a new life to an old chair is also upcycling, No?
I found this chair in the street few month ago, and for years, I wanted to give a try to reupholstering. I thought that this chair was the perfect occasion to start.

Before

Before

I found some fabric I like at a local store for $50, but I also had to understand how this chair was made, including the buttons on the backseat and all the tacks surrounding the fabric, and also few tricks I didn't know about but you learn them while you remove the old fabric.
I bought an upholstering hammer (thinner than regular hammer) and a tack remover, I also bought a cheap piece of fabric to mess with it before using the expensive and final fabric.

 

Done....

It's a pretty fast description I must admit, if you have question, I'll be happy to answer. Reupholstering was fun, I'll try again if I find the right chair.

An upcycled chair

This chair, that could also be a bench, is made of recycled wood blinds that have been wrapped around a reconstituted wood frame. Using a jigsaw, it's pretty easy to give the shape you would like. You'll have to keep at least 3 identical shapes for a bench and 2 for a chair. It's made by an argentinian design company: Gruba Design Studio.

Based on the same technique: The coffee Table

Buzz lightyear costume for halloween made of UPS and Fedex envelopes

These enveloppes are both really flexible and indestructible, like buzz... So I thought it might give me good results. This is few pictures showing some critical steps in the making of the chest and the wings, I used cardboard and foam for the wings, to give some volume
. The tips of the wings are insulation foam that I painted, same thing around the neck.

The neck, just cardboard I gave a round shape to.

Attaching the enveloppe around the neck using staples.

At this stage, you have to make sure that your child can fit his head through... it's essential!

Almost-done chest before spray painting

Legs, arms and chest.

You might see that I tapes a flat key chain light on one arm, so buzz can still use his laser!

The wings

Wrapping the wings with the envelopes

The other side (each side has a different sponsor....)

To give a great touch to your design, you will have to draw all the space ranger logo on your computer and stick it to the costume with a glue gun.

One of the logo I made....

If you need some of these drawing, drop me a comment and I'll be happy to send you a JPG copy a my drawings.

After doing this project, you'll never look at these envelopes the same way.... Oh and by the way, daddy had fun making it, but his son had a blast wearing it.

PVC pipe spider for Halloween

PVC spider with pumpkin

PVC spider with trash bags, having lunch...

A fun project to work on, you just need to get 90 degres pvc pipes, the pipes and the pumpkins. If you have to buy everything, it's a $30 project, but you might have some of these pipes in your basement....

An other recyclable bed

found on littlefashiongallery.com

I would not recommend making a crib from a cardboard, just for safety reason.
But the bed looks doable, buying it would be silly, can you believe they are selling the bed for $250?!

Making a wallet out of juice carton

The cap keeps the wallet closed. That's clever.

Full tutorial and video on familyfun.go.com website.

Playing cards upcycled into a lampshade

Nick Sayers made this out of 270 cards... Apparently he loves making spheres.

Train tickets

No tutorial is available but it inspired me, and I'll post a tutorial on something less complicated but similar as soon as I can give it a try.