Upcycling a seat belt

From uncommongoods

Another fun idea to make yourself for cheap or you can pay $24 if you are lazy. You can also use buckle from old child seat.

Making a rocket launcher with PVC pipes

The final Rocket Launcher

Kids love it

I must admit, this project is a bit more than just upcycling PVC pipes like you saw in a previous post, but it makes something really entertaining... A Rocket Launcher !
This kind of rocket launcher already exists on the market and  I wanted to share with you a "toy" that my son really enjoyed making and playing with. We made it for it's B-day party and kids loved it.

Why kids love it?
First they have to learn how to make the rocket out of paper, and then they can launch them by pressing a button, like the real stuff!! The tutorial show that you can also use a manual valve, but it's to hard for a 4 year old to activate.

Making the rocket launcher looks complicated but don't be fooled, it's not tricky as long as you get the right stuff!

What you need:
The Material: PVC pipes, pvc cement, electric valve, a switch and a 9v battery to activate the valve, a tire valve.

The valve described here is a manual one (ball valve)

And an electric sprinkler valve to make the launching more dramatic.

Sprinkler valve

The switch (made with PVC pipe)

By connecting the 2 wires of the sprinkler valve to a 9v battery, you activate the valve that will release the pressure from your pipes


The tools: A drill, a PVC pipes saw, a bike pump to put pressure in the launcher.

PVC pipe saw

How to make it:

It's just like a lego game, nothing difficult when you have all the right pipes to fit. You just have to glue them together, the valve is just screwed not glued.

The length of the pipes don't have to be exactly the same.

The tricky part is to insert the tire valve (from where you will inject air with the bike pump), you'll have to use a drill to make a hole big enough for the valve to fit, so you'll have to be careful to make the right size hole.

How to use the Rocket Launcher?
To fully enjoy it, you'll have to make the rockets. They are safe, since they are made of paper, but I recommend parents to supervise the kids anyway.

How to make the rocket:
To make the rocket you need a piece of regular paper for the body, 3 fins made of cardboard, and a piece of foam or paper tissus to make the tip of the rocket. Nothing fancy, but this rocket can go very high (100-200 feet high). Don't go too high with pressure (20-30 psi), you can control the pressure by looking at your pump manometer.

   

The pvc pipe is used to give the perfect shape to the rocket

                                  

The Launcher in action:

Upcycling old magazines

Vases From greenyourdecor.com

We have so many magazines in our house, you probably have a lot too... instead of trashing them in the recycling bin, this is what I found to inspire me.... and maybe you.

Clock Find on Etsy.

An Umbrella Stand from Craftster.org

or this trash from Crafster.org

Nice looking bowls.

Upcycling..... toilet paper rolls

Found here

Found here

The tutorial is pretty simple and you can figure out by ourself that you need to glue the paper roll slices together. You'll have to use laundry pins to maintain everything together. It makes very nice wreath that cost nothing. A great upcycling project.

Upcycling Bic Pen

You might remember the Bic Daisy Vase I posted few weeks ago. This is an other use of the Bic pen. My only concern is that it's not exactly recycling since all these pens are new, but if you like to keep your old Bic pens, this is another interesting project.
If you kept around 300 of these pens, this is an even bigger project:

The Volivik chandelier

This projects are made by a studio in Madrid named enPieza.

Upcycling electrical spool

I've been very busy these last few weeks, but I'll try to post some of my own projects as soon as possible.  I'll continu to post some inspiring creations.

Heather from "The Lovely Cupboard" gives a great tutorial on how to get fancy tools from the electrical spools she found.

Awesome pet beds

I found these cat beds made with Apple computers and vintage suitcases on Etsy from Atomic Vintage. Very stylish! If you are a crafty-kind of person, you can do it yourself!

Art and upcycling

The household Physicians (2008)

Once in a while, I like to associate upcycling and art in my post.
Upcycling could be considered as an art by itself, but some people can bring upcycling even higher.
Brian Dettmer is one of them, he can "sculpt" books a way I've never seen before, I  also like the way he reuses cassette tapes. What do you think?

Tab (2005) Altered set of Encyclopedia

Made with melted cassette tapes... and talent.

Upcycling old tennis racquets

I think it's a great idea but I'm still wondering where or how you could cut the mirror?....

Upcycled Coat Racks

These projects are easy to make and very creative, you'll just need a piece of wood such as wood pallets and the upcycled hooks (except for the pipes one), you also have to get the screws and a drill and you are all set.

Branches

Plastic cups (seen on Pinterest)

Plumbing supply

Forks

Toys

This last one is my favorite, my kid loves it! Just use old toys that are filled with plastic and screw from the back.

Upcycling PVC pipes

I happen to have a lot of PVC pipes at home in my basement, I used some of them to make something fun for my kid's birthday party that I will show you very soon.
But, there are a lot of simple stuff we could make and most of them look good!

PVC-pipe mirror

A wreath.

A desk organizer

A bird feeder